【Frauen ohne Unschuld】

To hear Facebook tell it,Frauen ohne Unschuld no one at the company is secretly using your phone's microphone to listen in on your conversations for the purpose of ad targeting.

But that doesn't mean they aren't open to the possibility.

A patent application filed by the Menlo Park-based company details a convoluted process to trigger users' devices to record the ambient audio surrounding them — be that your conversation or the sounds in your bedroom — and then send some form of data based on that recording back to the company.

And yeah, it's creepy as hell.

SEE ALSO: People think Facebook is listening to them. Here's how they're fighting back.

The application, first reported by Metro, was published on June 14 and lays out how Facebook might remotely turn on your phone's mic to start recording. Essentially, Facebook would embed high-pitched audio signals in "broadcast content" (think TV ads) that would be inaudible to humans. But whereas our ears wouldn't be able to discern it, "a client device" such as your phone would be able to hear it.

That signal would instruct your phone to record the "ambient audio" surrounding it, and then send an "ambient audio fingerprint" back to Facebook for analysis.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

"The online system, based on the ambient audio data, identifies the corresponding individual and content item and logs an impression for the content item upon determination that there was an impression of the identified content item by the identified individual," explains the application abstract.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Facebook, when reached for comment, claimed it has no intention of ever actually implementing the technology described in the application. Which, of course, makes one wonder why it bothered to apply for a patent on it in the first place.

Thankfully, Facebook VP and Deputy General Counsel Allen Lo is here to clear that up.

“It is common practice to file patents to prevent aggression from other companies," Lo said in a statement to Mashable. "Because of this, patents tend to focus on future-looking technology that is often speculative in nature and could be commercialized by other companies."

Phew! Facebook is just doing this to protect us from othercompanies that may eventually want to record us through our phones' microphones. That sounds ... believable.

But just in case you have any doubts about Facebook's true motives, Lo is here to insist that the company would totally never use this tech that it's trying to patent. Never.

"The technology in this patent has not been included in any of our products," he explained, "and never will be."

There, don't you feel better already? I mean, we can trust Lo — it's not like Facebook has a history of misleading its users or anything.

---

Featured Video For You

---

Watch Zuckerberg’s face freeze after a far-right politician credited Facebook for Trump's win and Brexit

---

Topics Cybersecurity Facebook Privacy Social Media

• Social Good
• Shopping
• Games
• Digital Culture
• Science
• Life
• Deals
• Tech

• Amazon Big Spring Sale 2025: Best Apple deals on iPads, MacBooks, and more still live
• The Last Furriers by Ann Manov
• Stationery in Motion: Letters from Hotels by Nina Ellis
• Chateaubriand on Writing Memoir between Two Societies by François
• Then and Now: 6 Generations of GeForce Graphics Compared
• A Hall of Mirrors by Gary Indiana
• I Could Not Believe It: The 1979 Teenage Diaries of Sean DeLear by Sean DeLear and Brontez Purnell
• Three Favorite Lyricists by The Paris Review
• Big-League Bluster
• Chateaubriand on Finding Life in a Society Dissolving

• How to view the annular solar eclipse without destroying your eyes
• YouTube demonetized Dr Disrespect over alleged inappropriate Twitch behavior involving a minor
• Stellantis and China’s CATL announce new 50 GWh battery plant in Spain · TechNode
• Baidu and Geely give no sign of investing further in EV joint venture · TechNode
• BMW to achieve 100% green charging with China’s State Grid by 2027 · TechNode
• Best waterproof speaker deal: 25% off Sony waterproof speaker
• Webb telescope probes space explosion and makes fascinating discovery
• Canada vs. Chile 2024 livestream: Watch Copa America for free
• The 10 most bodacious '80s movies — and where to watch them
• Hawk Tuah girl's merch is already raking in lots of cash

• The Beatles biopic casts all the internet's boyfriends in one movie
• The Couch Had Nothing to Do with Me by Maya Binyam
• The Last Furriers by Ann Manov
• Hello, World! Part One: Eliza by Sheila Heti
• Astronomers saw one galaxy impale another. The damage was an eye
• The Mother of the Mother of the Virgin Mary by Marta Figlerowicz
• At Proust Weekend: The Madeleine Event by Olivia Kan
• The Review Wins the National Magazine Award for Fiction by The Paris Review
• Your 'wrong person' texts may be linked to Myanmar warlord
• Diary of Nuance by Adam Thirlwell

• Skype is finally shutting down
• My Ugly Bathroom by Sarah Miller
• What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Goals? by Jonathan Wilson
• The Smoker by Ottessa Moshfegh
• Comparing Team Communication Apps: What Do You Get for Free?
• Love Songs: “Aguacero” by Carina del Valle Schorske
• The Dust by Christopher Chang
• Hello, World! Part Two: Eliza?!!?!?! by Sheila Heti
• Waitin’ on the Student Debt Jubilee
• Announcing the 2023 George Plimpton and Susannah Hunnewell Prize Winners by The Paris Review