How to stop Facebook from listening to you on your phone

Here’s how to stop Facebook from listening to you on your phone!

Facebook has been listening to US users of its apps since 2014, but a recent report from The Independent claims that the social network is always listening. Kelli Burns, a communications professor at the University of South Florida, told the paper that she believes Facebook listens to all conversations people have while the app is open, to serve more relevant ads to those people by listening on Facebook to what they’re talking about.

The social network, however, tells Quartz that it only accesses a user’s microphone assuming they’ve given it permission under very specific circumstances, such as when they’re recording a video or asking it to listen to music on the television. 

Facebook also published a blog post today reassuring users that it doesn’t use audio recordings for ad-targeting purposes.

But if you want to revoke Facebook’s access to your microphone anyway, here’s what you do:

• For iPhone users: Go to Settings >> Facebook >> Settings and then slide the microphone button to the left, turning it from green to white, disabling it.

• For Android phone users: Go to Settings >> Application >> Application manager >> find Facebook >> Permissions >> Turn off mic.

• On Android Marshmallow: Go to Settings >> swipe to Personal >> Privacy and Safety >> App Permissions >> Microphone >> find Facebook, then slide it to the off position.

• For Windows 10 phones: Settings >> Privacy >> Microphone – Will disable microphone for all apps on the Windows 10 phone

Keep in mind that disabling Facebook's microphone access will result in features like Live Video not working with audio.

And, if these methods of disabling Facebook’s ability to listen in on your conversations don’t help, contact your smartphone carrier for more help. They should be able to quickly tell you how to go into your settings whatever smartphone or mobile device you have and switch off the microphone feature in the Facebook app.

Facebook made over $5 billion in sales last quarter, and the vast majority of its revenue comes from advertising. Even if it’s not listening to us, it reads what we post: Just yesterday, the company announced a new AI program that effectively helps the company to figure out exactly what users are saying in their posts, which Facebook could eventually use to show users more relevant ads.

 The truth is, Facebook tracks us in ways many of us don't even realize and is so good at it, we think it's monitoring our conversations. Instead, it uses sophisticated demographic and location data to serve up ads. 

The social network admits that it collects the "content, communications and other information," including photographs and videos, accounts, hashtags and groups we are connected to. It notes what posts, videos and other content we view and even collects our payment information, including credit or debit card number, billing and shipping info.

"There are many other ways for Facebook to target you with ads based on data they've collected and put through algorithms," affirms privacy advocate Paul Bischoff of Comparitech.com. "Remember that Facebook can track what you do on other websites and apps that use Facebook plugins, login and widgets.”