Have you ever suspected that Facebook is listening to your conversations through Microphone?

Have you ever felt Facebook is showing you very relevant ads about topics you’re only discussing around your phone?
If yes, then you may find this news worth reading.
Communications Professor Kelli Burns from the University of South Florida claims that Facebook is listening to all conversations people have while its app is open to serve more relevant ads for products related to what they are talking about.
However, the social networking giant responds it does listen to audio and collect information from users, but does not record or use sounds heard around people for targeted ads.

"Facebook does not use microphone audio to inform advertising or News Feed stories in any way," a Facebook spokesperson said. "Businesses are able to serve relevant ads based on people's interests and other demographic information, but not through audio collection."

Facebook rolled out a feature in May of 2014 when the company said that it might target ads "in the future" based on the use of your audio identification in posts.

Like if you post that you are listening to "Shake It Off," you might see an ad for Taylor Swift’s concert tour.

However, Burns isn’t convinced by Facebook’s claims and has accused the social media giant of using an audio collection tool to not only gather it simply of helping out users, but also listen in on everything users say to serve them with relevant ads.

Burns says that she tested the feature by discussing certain topics around the phone and discovered that the site appeared to show relevant ads based on the topic.

Burns' finding is supported by many users across the Internet, who also say that ads in their Facebook feed are related to things they spoke or discuss around their phone, but never searched for it on the Internet.

If you are also the one not convinced by Facebook’s claims, you can turn off this feature with relative ease.

Here’s how you can stop Facebook from listening to you:

For iPhone users: Go to the Settings → Facebook → Settings and Turn OFF Microphone.

Android users can use App Permissions to do so. For this: Go to Settings → Personal → Privacy and Safety → App Permissions → Microphone → Facebook and Turn OFF the slider.

Since these changes are done at the operating system level, Facebook can not turn the feature ON even if the social network wanted to.

Thanks and stay blessed!

Facebook Founder Zuckerberg's Twitter, Pinterest accounts gets Hacked! And the Password was...

The man who runs the biggest social network and continuously  implements new security measures to boost its billion users security, himself failed to follow basics of Internet security for his own online accounts.

Yes, I’m talking about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who had his Twitter and Pinterest accounts compromised on Sunday.

The hacker group from Saudi Arabia, dubbed OurMine, claimed responsibility for the hack and guess how the group did it?


The hackers tweeted that they found Zuck's account credentials in the recent LinkedIn data breach, from which they took his SHA1-hashed password string and then broke it and tried on several social media accounts.

The group, which has more than 40,000 Twitter followers, then successfully broke into Zuck's Twitter (@finkd) and Pinterest profile and defaced its banners with its logo as well as tweeted out some offensive posts.

Mr. Zuckerberg has not sent a tweet from the account since 2012.

Now, what’s more surprising?

Zuckerberg's LinkedIn password was "dadada", which he also used for his other online accounts, the group tweeted.

So, this might be another alarm for those who haven’t yet changed passwords for their LinkedIn as well as other online accounts that used the same credentials.

Also Read: Popular Social Site Vk.com Hacked ! 100 Million Passwords Leaked Online

In tweets now deleted, the group also claimed to have gained accessed to Zuck’s Instagram account, but Facebook confirmed that the group did not access his Instagram account.

"No Facebook systems or accounts were accessed," a Facebook spokesperson said. "The affected accounts have been re-secured."

More than 167 Million members' email and password combinations were hacked during a 2012 LinkedIn data breach and had just been posted online. The passwords were encrypted with the SHA1 algorithm with "no salt" that made it easier for hackers to crack them.

Like other data breaches, I suggest you change your password immediately, especially if you use the same password for other websites.



Thanks and stay blessed!