Facebook has recently faced many crises regarding the dangers of data privacy, so you may have heard rumors or read reports that the Facebook app can spy on you with your smartphone camera or microphone. But is it really true? How can he know a lot about you?
Can Facebook application spy on users?
Last November, an iPhone user posted a Tweet on Twitter with a video that shows that when he browses the news feed in his Facebook account, he finds that the iPhone’s camera opens at strange times. Other users have investigated and found similar problems, there is no reason for this to happen, and it is extremely worrying to think that the app is spying on users without their knowledge.
A report by The Guardian confirmed that there is an error in the Facebook application on iPhone phones that allows the application access to the phone’s camera during use, but a company spokesman insisted that no photos or videos be uploaded because of this error and that it was a security error, and not an actual attempt to spy on users.
The company has already provided a fix to the issue and launched an app version update on App Store very quickly, and now there is no problem with the app.
Does Facebook use your phone’s microphone or camera to spy on you?
This story makes headlines because many people question how Facebook is collecting information about them, there is a common belief that the app is running invisibly on the camera or the phone’s microphone to spy on users.
We all know that it is a terrifying feeling to talk about a product and suddenly you find its ads appearing in the news feed on Facebook, and despite the security error mentioned above, there is no evidence that Facebook does this already. The company vehemently denied this in the past, saying: “The fear of spying on you with your phone’s microphone over time is something that just goes with your head.”
The truth is that Facebook does not need to spy on you with your phone’s microphone or camera in order to precisely target you with ads, because Facebook can predict your purchase behavior very precisely through the vast amounts of information you publish on it daily.
The application also depends on your geographical location to target you with ads. By knowing where you live and where you spend most of your time, Facebook can predict a lot about your interests and purchasing habits. When the app detects that you are in a new location, such as you are traveling to a new location, this is a signal that leads to display ads about holidays or travel related things.
Facebook also depends on a tool called Facebook Pixel, which is a code that webmasters use to track site visitors and re-target them with ads, which is similar to the browser cookie, but it is exclusive to Facebook, which is why when you search for a specific product on Amazon For example, then you log into Facebook, you often see an ad for this product you were just looking for.
There are other sources of your data that are from your friends and family, where Facebook assumes that if a close friend of you is interested in a product, there is a high possibility that you are interested in it as well. It also uses information such as: your stated interests, the pages you like to create a profile for you, and all of this information can predict your habits and behaviors well.
How can you prevent Facebook from following you on the Internet:
- Delete your Facebook account: This is the best way to stop Facebook from collecting your data, but be sure to permanently delete the account and not just deactivate it, because even if you take the step to deactivate the account, Facebook will continue to collect data about you.
- Use some browser add-ons that prevent Facebook tracking: There are Chrome and Firefox add-ons to limit the amount of data Facebook can collect about you like: Chrome’s Disconnect extension, or Facebook Container Extension for Firefox.
- Use tools to block Facebook pixel tool: There are also some plugins that help you prevent any website from tracking you while browsing, like Ghostery that allows you to disable websites that follow you on web pages.
Additional steps to reduce Facebook tracking:
- All of the above steps limit Facebook tracking to you while browsing websites, but you must adjust your Facebook account settings itself to reduce the data that it can access, it is always a good idea to check your privacy settings.
- Turn off the app permissions on your phone: This step helps revoke the app’s access to the camera and microphone. But keep in mind that in this case you will not be able to take pictures directly through the app. But you will be sure that the app does not see or hear you.
