There is a 'unique' theory that calls Facebook to tap into the user's private conversations via mobile apps after the app is closed. From the conversation, will be scanned some keywords to determine the relevance of ads that appear when the account owner to search on Facebook.
This issue sounds classic, but not impossible. There is a fear of smart device users if they are spied on their own devices.
Why not?
Today, technology has grown so cutting-edge that smart devices can record anything using microphones and cameras, without the user knowing it.
Technically, it does make quite sense, since smart device components allow for that. Security in manufactured products is also still vulnerable to attack or hack.
Thus, Facebook's wiretapping debate is no longer focused on the possibility of happening or not, but more about ethics.
Tapping for ads?
Like Google, most of Facebook's profits come from advertising. So Facebook desperately to get public attention. If you note, the appearance of Facebook newsfeed is different now.
Previously, text and photo postings were neatly combined, videos did not play automatically, and so on.
But now, video postings play automatically, news "clickbait" still often appear in the timeline, and the appearance of the icon "love" in addition to "like" as an option like posting. This way Facebook is suspected of measuring the preferences of the users in order to determine the right ads to be presented to users.
But what if Facebook is not able to attract the attention of its users through the above? Really Facebook using shortcut intercepts?
The tapping theory of Facebook is like an urban legend that is hard to lose. As Advertising Age stresses, the fear of eavesdropping by Facebook will be hard to lose even though Facebook's advertising executive Rob Goldman tries to straighten it out.
"We run ads on Facebook, we do not-and never-use a microphone for advertising, that's not true," Goldman wrote on his Twitter account.
Goldman's chirp was a direct response after the American Reply All podcast host PJ Vogt asked his followers if they believed Facebook recorded their private conversations.
Less profitable
In the middle of the theory that still justified some Facebook users, the fact that using tapping techniques to measure advertising is very expensive.
If Facebook actually apply it, then Facebook will offer the cost of advertising premium prices. This is confirmed by the Director of Global international advertising agency, TBWA Worldwide, Baker Lambert.
"They have no excuse for that (tapping) They will not sell it to advertisers," Lambert explained, as quoted by KompasTekno from TechTimes on Friday (3/11/2017).
Fear of eavesdropping from fixed smart devices may occur, particularly on voice commands such as Amazon Echo or Google Home with Google Assistant.
Regardless of whether or not the theory, smart device users must balance the 'intelligence' of the device and more wisely use the gadget to protect privacy.
