Ask HN: Why does Facebook.com activate the microphone? In Safari on macOS when visiting the Facebook newsfeed, the system mic active icon appears in the menu bar and says that Safari is using it. I haven't granted permission. When I asked ChatGPT it said 'Safari creates an audio capture session even if the user has not granted microphone permission, for capability negotiation, but no audio data leaves the device until permission is granted.' - is that accurate? |
Better question, why are you still on facebook?
Remember when people paid $50 for amazon alexa to spy on all ur Conversations ?
What people don’t understand is that voice compresses extremely well. It doesn’t need to be stereo or high-def for processing. VoIP has been around for more than two decades and worked over 128kb connection speeds for actual phone calls. With LTE and 5G, it would be almost impossible to notice compressed and encrypted voice transmissions. It would look like any other HTTPS connection because it’s just data sent for processing. It’s not a two-way call. It’s compressed audio for transcription, if it’s not already being transcribed on the device itself.
The very next day I was visiting Phys.org like I usually do and an ad appeared about dock supplies and repair. I don't even have Facebook and never have! He does and is kind of active on Facebook. Both of our phones were with us at the time of the conversation and I was connected to his WiFi network at the time. I'm on Android and he's on Apple user. Out of all the ads they could have pushed to me... dock repair!? I wish I still had that screenshot I sent him. It creeped us both out.
“The better to hear you with, my child,” came the growling reply.
I assume you have Safari > Settings > Websites > Microphone > facebook.com set to the default "Ask", or to "Deny"? Also check any installed extensions.