How you can stop Facebook listening to your mobile conversations

Daniel Milligan
·Editor
Updated

Facebook officials confirmed today they HAVE been listening to your audio messenger chats.

They hired a third party contractor to listen in to conversations and transcribe them, according to a Bloomberg report.

Facebook has since confirmed the reports but said they are no longer transcribing audio.

The social media giant said that users could choose the option to have their voice chats on Facebook’s Messenger app transcribed. The contractors were testing artificial intelligence technology to make sure the messages were properly transcribed from voice to text.

But many people have allowed Facebook to use their conversations, without knowing.

Depending on your device, this is how you can stop Facebook having access to your mobile’s microphone.

  • 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.

Facebook say it doesn’t use a device’s microphone to inform ads or to change what you see in News Feed.

A post on newsroom.FB.com said: “Some recent articles have suggested that we must be listening to people’s conversations in order to show them relevant ads. This is not true. We show ads based on people’s interests and other profile information – not what you’re talking out loud about.”

The news has prompted many to delete their accounts.