如果您遇到过这种情况，请举手。您正在与某人谈论您打算花钱的事情。也许是假期或新笔记本电脑。然后，下次您打开Facebook 应用程序(Facebook app)时，您会发现一则与您之前谈论的内容完全相同的广告等着您。
令人不寒而栗！你吓坏了！这是完全可以理解的。这足以让你想知道，Facebook在听我说话吗？最简单的答案是“不”。为什么？好吧，Facebook已经发表了一份官方声明(official statement)，明确表示他们根本不这样做。当然，任何优秀的阴谋论者(conspiracy theorist wouldn)都不会仅仅因为否认而动摇。他们当然(Of course)会否认。
所以，让我们对这个问题采取不同的方法。让我们看看Facebook记录、处理和挖掘每个人录制的演讲以提供有针对性的广告的可行性，而不是相信他们的话。
首先，能做到吗？(First, CAN It Be Done?)
如果技术上不可能实现，那么Facebook(Facebook)倾听你的整个前提是没有实际意义的。但是，如果您希望是这种情况，请做好失望的准备。
在纸上，完全有可能通过手机的麦克风记录某人，将他们的语音处理成文本并使用(text and use)该文本创建有针对性的广告。执行此操作所需的所有技术都存在。
毕竟，我们每天都在使用智能扬声器和语音助手，例如Siri 和 Cortana 。(Siri and Cortana)他们总是在倾听他们的触发词，可以准确地转录您的演讲，甚至“理解”您要求执行任务的内容。
当然，像这样的服务需要相当多的基于云的处理能力(processing power)。当您与Siri(Siri)交谈时，您的语音会被发送到数据中心(data center)，强大的服务器硬件(server hardware)将其转化为软件可以理解的信息。这一点很重要，因为数据中心(data center)不是免费的。
每次您使用Siri 或 Google Assistant(Siri or Google Assistant)之类的东西时，都必须有人为此付费。对于语音助手(voice assistant)等按需服务，这个成本是可控的。但是，我们在这里讨论的是录制和处理时间以及演讲时间，您可能会获得有关定向广告的有用信息。广告收入(Advert revenue)利润率已经微乎其微，这意味着这样一个项目几乎没有任何经济理由。
话虽如此，现代智能手机已经足够强大，可以进行本地语音处理(voice processing)。例如，谷歌(Google)已经在一些Pixel手机上提供离线语音识别功能。(offering offline speech recognition)当然，用户会很快注意到电池耗尽(battery drain)。然而，由于不需要实时处理，手机可以在充电的同时在一夜之间安静地处理成批的语音数据。
这意味着Facebook可以免费获取数据。话又说回来，几乎不可能有人不注意到这种事情的发生(thing happening)并暴露它。
因此，底线是从技术角度来看这是完全可行的，但在经济上没有意义。
崔波诺——谁受益？(Cui Bono – Who Benefits?)
这给我们带来了在这种情况下你应该经常问的下一个大问题——如果(situation –)Facebook正在倾听，谁会受益？我们已经在上面提到了这一点，但如果Facebook的想法是利用这些数据制作有针对性的广告，那么这对他们有什么好处呢？
为此，根据这些数据制作的有针对性的广告将优于常规方式制作的广告。由于创建这些内容的成本更高，因此广告商也必须为它们支付更多费用。这(Which)意味着存在一个回报率更高 的秘密广告层。(advertising tier)
再一次，有人会注意到这一点。大多数阴谋都是站不住脚的，因为它们需要大量独立的人才能完美地保守秘密。如果Facebook这样做，你会期待多个独立的举报人站出来。在这个故事存在的这些年里，这根本就没有发生过。(Which)
替代解释(Alternative Explanations)
以上都没有抹去最初触发这个想法的核心观察。(core observation)有时，您会因为刚刚谈过的某件事而被Facebook 广告击中。(Facebook advert)哎呀(Heck)，有时您会看到有关您正在考虑(thinking )的事情的广告！不过，谢天谢地，Facebook正在读懂你的想法的想法还没有引起很大的关注。
那么我们该如何解释呢？实际上有不止几个替代假设。我们在这里有更多的空间，但这三个可能是最有可能的，可悲的是，相当平淡的解释。
计算命中数，而不是未命中数(Counting The Hits, Not The Misses)
人的天性是对值得注意的事情比不重要的事情给予更多的重视。作为一个物种，我们实际上在估计概率之类的东西方面非常糟糕，因此。例如，在决定是否购买彩票时，人们更关注中奖的人，而不是一无所获的数百万人。
同样，您很有可能只注意到这种Facebook 现象(Facebook phenomenon)，因为它发生得太奇怪了。您不记得您打开应用程序并且没有看到与最近对话相关的广告的所有时间。所以，这可能只是一个奇怪的巧合，但也不(not )是完全随机的。
由于Facebook的运作方式，这种事情发生(thing happening)的几率比你想象的要高，这将我们带到了下一个替代解释。
您已经向 Facebook 提供了信息(You Already Gave Facebook The Information)
Facebook使用算法获取您的数据，然后将广告匹配给您。您已经心甘情愿地向Facebook提供了它可能需要的尽可能多的数据。照片(Photos)、帖子和个人资料信息几乎包含有关您生活的每一个细节。更重要的是，Facebook可以根据(Facebook)其他(other )人 的行为推断您想购买什么。
我们想认为我们都是独一无二的雪花，但事实上，如果您和一群其他人有相似的兴趣，那么您很有可能也会跟随他们的购买行为(buying behavior)。
这(Which)意味着您与某人谈论的事情也恰好是Facebook 软件预测的主题或产品(topic or product)，这种可能性非随机、非零。这(Which)会导致你的大脑产生一种假阳性连接，即一个导致另一个。相反，这是与这两个事件相关的第三个因素。
你正在进入时代精神(You’re Tapping Into The Zeitgeist)
你有多少免费的？你(Are)的想法真的是你自己的吗？好吧，让我们在这里不要太哲学化，但你不能确定你的谈话没有(conversation hasn)受到更大趋势的影响。
我们比以往任何时候都更加紧密，你的意识流将在某种程度上反映时代精神（时代精神）。(Zeitgeist )换句话说，你很可能在谈论流行的东西，这也使得Facebook很可能也会为你提供主题广告。在某些时候，这两个进程将被拦截，从而导致您会记得的令人毛骨悚然的事件。
It Doesn’t Mean No One Is Listening!
虽然Facebook很可能不会记录您的所有对话并在其中搜索广告关键字，但这并不意味着其他(mean someone)人没有在听。已经有多个关于智能扬声器和智能相机等设备的可疑做法的报道。
此外，国家安全局(NSA)等政府机构有资金、时间和动力(time and motivation)使这种做法可行(practice feasible)。然后是黑客的问题，他们可以用恶意软件(malware and record)感染您的手机并记录设备周围发生的任何事情。
因此，虽然“ Facebook是否在听我说话”的阴谋论(conspiracy theory)很可能是无稽之谈，但这并不意味着我们可以在一般的数字隐私问题上睡觉。好消息是智能手机操作系统中的(smartphone operating)隐私和安全措施(privacy and security measures)一直在改进。这使流氓应用程序(rogue apps)更难监视您。
没有完美的隐私或安全(privacy or security)这回事，但也不是全有或全无的情况。至于Facebook 的阴谋(Facebook conspiracy)，我们或许可以放下这个特别的担忧。至少现在。
OTT Explains : Is Facebook Listening To Me Through My Smartphone?
Raise your hand if this has ever haрpеned to you. Υou’re having a chat with someone about something you’re planning to spend money on. Maybe a holiday or a new laptоp. Then, the next time you open the Facebook app, you find an advert for exactly the thing you were talking about earlier waiting for you.
It’s chilling! You’re creeped out! That’s perfectly understandable. It’s enough to make you wonder, is Facebook listening to me? The simplest answer is “no”. Why? Well, Facebook has made an official statement clearly stating that they simply don’t do this. Of course, any good conspiracy theorist wouldn’t be swayed by a mere denial. Of course they’ll deny it.
So, let’s take a different approach to this question. Instead of taking Facebook at their word, let’s look at how feasible it would be for them to record, process and mine everyone’s recorded speech in order to provide targeted ads.
First, CAN It Be Done?
The whole premise of Facebook listening to you is moot if it’s a technical impossibility to pull off. However, if you were hoping this is the case, prepare for disappointment.
On paper it’s entirely possible to record someone through their phone’s microphone, process their speech into text and use that text to create targeted advertisements. All the technology needed to do this exists.
After all, we use smart speakers and voice assistants such as Siri and Cortana every day. They are always listening for their trigger words, can accurately transcribe your speech and even “understand” what you’re asking to perform tasks.
Of course, services like these require quite a lot of cloud-based processing power. When you speak to Siri, your speech is sent to a data center, where powerful server hardware turns it into information the software can understand. This is an important point, because the data center isn’t free.
Every time you use something like Siri or Google Assistant, someone has to pay for it. For an on-demand service such as a voice assistant, this cost is manageable. However, here we are talking about recording and processing hours and hours of speech on the off-chance you’ll get useful information for targeted ads. Advert revenue margins are already razor-thin, which means there’s little if any economic justification for such a project.
That being said, modern smartphones are powerful enough to local voice processing. Google, as one example, are already offering offline speech recognition on some Pixel phones. Of course, users would quickly notice the battery drain. However, since real-time processing is not needed, phones could quietly process batches of voice data overnight while charging.
This would mean Facebook could get the data for free. Then again, it would be almost impossible for someone not to notice this sort of thing happening and exposing it.
So, the bottom line is that it’s entirely feasible from a technical standpoint, but doesn’t make financial sense to do.
Cui Bono – Who Benefits?
Which brings us to the next big question you should always ask in this sort of situation – who benefits if Facebook is listening? We already alluded to this above, but if the idea is that Facebook makes targeted adverts from this data, how does that benefit them?
For this to make any sense, the targeted ads made from this data would outperform those made the usual way. Since these would cost more to create, advertisers would have to pay more for them as well. Which would imply the existence of a secret advertising tier with substantially better returns.
Once again, someone would have noticed this. Most conspiracies are untenable because they require a large number of independent people to perfectly keep a secret. If Facebook were doing this, you’d expect multiple, independent whistleblowers to come forward. Which simply hasn’t happened in the years this story has existed.
Alternative Explanations
None of the above does anything to erase the core observation that triggered this idea in the first place. Sometimes you’ll get hit with a Facebook advert about something you just had a conversation about. Heck, sometimes you’ll see an advert for something you were just thinking about! Although, thankfully, the idea that Facebook is reading your mind has not yet gained major traction.
So how can we explain this? There are actually more than a few alternative hypotheses. More than we have space for here, but these three are probably the most likely and, sadly, rather pedestrian explanation.
Counting The Hits, Not The Misses
It’s human nature to give more weight to things that are notable than things that aren’t. As a species, we’re actually pretty terrible at estimating things like probability because of this. For example, when deciding whether to buy lottery tickets, people pay way more attention to the one person who wins the jackpot than the millions of people who won absolutely nothing.
Similarly, there’s a good chance that you only notice this Facebook phenomenon because it’s such a weird thing to happen. You don’t recall all the times you opened up the app and didn’t see an advert related to a recent conversation. So, it’s probably just a weird coincidence, but it’s not a totally random one.
Thanks to the way Facebook works, the odds of this sort of thing happening is higher than you think, which brings us to the next alternative explanation.
You Already Gave Facebook The Information
Facebook uses algorithms that take your data and then matches adverts to you. You’ve already willingly given Facebook as much data as it could possibly want. Photos, posts and profile information contains just about every detail about your life. More importantly, Facebook can make inferences about what you’d like to buy based on the behavior of other people.
We’d like to think that we are all unique snowflakes, but in truth if you and a group of other people share similar interests, there’s a good chance you’ll follow their buying behavior as well.
Which means there’s a non-random, non-zero chance that something you’d be talking about with someone will also happen to be a topic or product predicted by Facebook’s software. Which leads to a false positive connection in your brain that one caused the other. Instead, it’s a third factor related to both events.
You’re Tapping Into The Zeitgeist
How much free will do you have? Are your thoughts really your own? OK, let’s not get too philosophical here, but you can’t be sure that your conversation hasn’t been influenced by a larger trend.
We’re more connected than ever and your stream of consciousness is going to reflect the Zeitgeist (spirit of the times) to some degree. In other words, you’re likely to be talking about stuff that’s trending, which also makes it likely that Facebook will provide you with topical ads as well. At some point those two processes are going to intercept, causing a creepy event you’ll remember.
It Doesn’t Mean No One Is Listening!
While, most likely, Facebook isn’t recording all your conversations and trawling them for ad keywords, that doesn’t mean someone else isn’t listening. There have already been multiple accounts of questionable practices surrounding devices like smart speakers and smart cameras.
Moreover, government agencies such as the NSA have the money, time and motivation to make this sort of practice feasible. Then there’s the issue of hackers, who can infect your phone with malware and record whatever’s happening around the device.
So while the “Is Facebook listening to me” conspiracy theory is most likely bunk, that doesn’t mean we can sleep on the issue of digital privacy in general. The good news is that the privacy and security measures in smartphone operating systems are improving all the time. Which makes it harder for rogue apps to spy on you.
There is no such thing as perfect privacy or security, but it’s not an all-or-nothing situation either. As for the Facebook conspiracy, we can probably lay that particular concern to rest. At least for now.
