this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2024
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Mildly Infuriating

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago

It's a new frontier in sourcing material for AI training...

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Gonna play Devil's Advocate for a moment here.

I assume that this isn't actually for nefarious purposes, and is actually just a low-effort way of curbing spambots on their platform. It's likely that the bots are using emulated devices to post from the official app, and this permission might lock up a lot of those bots. Obviously this wouldn't be the best way to combat spambots, but I'm gonna go with Hanlon's Razor on this one.

I know the immediate first thought most people will have is that this is just so Meta can open up another avenue to spy on you. But let's consider for a moment the logistics involved in that. Audio/video data is huge; capturing and parsing it it requires a non-insignificant amount of CPU/battery usage, and transmitting it will use a good bit of bandwidth, both of which would be noticeable by even novice users (since most modern devices these days will show an on-screen indicator whenever certain sensors are being activated, and will tell you what app is using it, so seeing Instagram trigger your mic/camera when you're not using it would be immediately noticed by just about everybody). That would also make this one data stream exponentially more costly to gather and process for Meta than most of their other data streams combined.

Also consider the fact that Meta already has over a million data points on just about every single person on the planet, anyway; what could they stand to gain by monitoring your IRL presence that they haven't already inferred from the other, less-invasive data they've gathered on you? Half of the recordings they'd get would be farts and "oh my god, stop barking, nobody's even at the door", and Meta probably already knows that you have a dog and lactose intolerance.

It's more expensive to produce, it's more likely to be detected, and there's less of a guarantee that you even get any usable data from it at all since they already know just about everything about you already. I really don't see spying as the end goal for this particular action, only because it doesn't seem like a profitable venture.

None of this is to suggest that Meta isn't spying on you. They are. They 100% are spying on each and every one of you. I just don't think the mic/camera are how they're doing it.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago

Not even that, it's more than likely some PM said "we want to open the camera and be ready to record when someone goes on the story tab", then it gets implemented as needing permissions first and not considering that some people wouldn't want to give the permissions and only upload from camera roll

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

They keep filtering the stupid people, but there's always more.

I keep wondering what zuck has to do to be more obvious, but it seems like an infinite horizon to someone whe never signed up for any meta product.

Also, soft switches don't really turn things off. Physical covers over cameras, mics, and speakers can't be overridden.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

Not surprised. It’s just Meta being Meta and garbling up all yo data so that it can make money from it. Maybe don’t use the app. Try accessing from your mobile browser.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I set up Amazon Echo buds recently. I have no desire to use any of the Alexa crap on them and just wanted cheap, decent noise cancelling Bluetooth earbuds on prime day. You apparently can't set them up without the Alexa app and like all the permissions. I downloaded it on an old phone that's practically blank, set up the buds, and deleted the app. Once it's set up you can use like regular Bluetooth earbuds. They wanted location all the time and a few others (microphone maybe?). Selecting only allow this time wouldn't even work. I get it Bezos, u want my data, but fuck off u aren't getting it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

You should look if it works with gadgetbridge. Maybe you can get some functionality back that the app had?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I've wondered for quite a while if there was ever any truth to the rumors that Meta apps "listen" to people. It doesn't make logical sense, as the OS should expose they are doing it. Unless they had API access to allow microphone access without triggering the microphone icon. These companies have had API access in the past, like when Uber had full screen display capture access, and Meta definitely has some agreements with the fruit company to access some kinds of data. Or, when iOS first introduced the location tracking symbol in the status bar, I was able to write a program that allowed gathering of location access without actually triggering the icon.

Most of the time, the events can be explained away by knowing how adtech works, like, I was drinking a beverage, a friend asked what it was, the next day I started getting ads for it.

In that case:

  • They were on my wifi network
  • They picked up their phone when they were asking about it and did an Internet search
  • So once the GeoIP was cross-referenced across ad providers, the IP started being targeted for those ads, makes sense

Some stories I've heard are more strange.

It does make me wonder if it was true the whole time, but they now have to ask for permission.

Don't use the platforms myself or I'd try and set up a test experiment.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Relevant thread today - you would be a good person to test this seemingly unlikely theory!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

In this case by hitting create post, it triggers the permissions for mic/camera because it tries to activate them.

As to why, it's probably because they want you to create videos, so it defaults to that when trying to create a post. And then in there, you can go for a text post instead. But I don't use Instagram so I don't know if anyone who does can confirm that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Good theory, I like it.

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