{"id":1330,"date":"2025-10-01T21:13:30","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T17:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/adam-mosseris-were-totally-not-spying-on-you-video-is-raising-a-lot-of-questions\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T21:13:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T17:13:30","slug":"adam-mosseris-were-totally-not-spying-on-you-video-is-raising-a-lot-of-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/adam-mosseris-were-totally-not-spying-on-you-video-is-raising-a-lot-of-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Mosseri\u2019s \u2018we\u2019re totally not spying on you\u2019 video is raising a lot of questions"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.theverge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/10\/gettyimages-1357941759.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;crop=0,0,100,100\" \/><figcaption>\n\t\t<\/figcaption><\/p><\/figure>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Today, the same day that Meta announced that it will soon <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/news\/789168\/meta-ai-chats-personalized-advertising\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">use your AI chats to personalize the ads it shows you<\/a>, Instagram head Adam Mosseri made a \u201cmyth busting\u201d video attempting to set the record straight on a persistent rumor about Meta: \u201cI swear, we do not listen to your microphone,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DPRA3qyEgWw\/?igsh=cWE5c2Jsb2hjMTRy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">he says<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Meta\u2019s ad targeting systems can be eerily precise, sometimes showing you things that you feel like you\u2019ve only discussed in a verbal conversation and would only be possible for Meta to know about if it was listening through a device\u2019s microphone. It\u2019s a perception that Meta has been trying to push back on for years:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In 2016, the company, then known as Facebook, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2016\/6\/3\/11854860\/facebook-smartphone-listening-eavesdrop-microphone-denial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said that<\/a> it \u201cdoes not use your phone\u2019s microphone to inform ads or to change what you see in News Feed.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>In a 2018 Senate hearing, CEO Mark Zuckerberg responded to the question on the topic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2018\/4\/10\/17221478\/zuckerberg-facebook-senate-listening-tapping-microphone\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">with a direct \u201cno.\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n<li>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/privacy\/dialog\/is-facebook-listening-to-my-conversation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">support document titled<\/a> \u201care Facebook and Instagram listening to your conversations without your knowledge?\u201d, Meta says \u201cNo. We do not use your microphone unless you\u2019ve given us permission, and even then, we only use it when you\u2019re actively using a feature that requires the microphone.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">In Wednesday\u2019s video, Mosseri says he\u2019s had \u201ca lot\u201d of passionate conversations about the topic, including \u201cat least a few\u201d with his wife.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-instagram wp-block-embed-instagram\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DPRA3qyEgWw\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\">\n<div> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DPRA3qyEgWw\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> \n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>View this post on Instagram<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/p><\/a>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DPRA3qyEgWw\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A post shared by Adam Mosseri (@mosseri)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">\u201cWe do not listen to you,\u201d according to Mosseri. \u201cWe do not use the phone\u2019s microphone to eavesdrop on you.\u201d Listening to you through your phone\u2019s microphone \u201cwould be a gross violation of privacy\u201d and would drain your phone\u2019s battery, he says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Mosseri also offers a few possible explanations of why you \u201cmight see an ad for something that you recently talked to somebody about,\u201d which I\u2019ve block-quoted below:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">One, maybe you actually tapped on something that was related or even searched for that product online on a website, maybe before you had that conversation. We actually do work with advertisers who share information with us about who is on their website to try to target those people with ads. So if you were looking at a product on a website, then that advertiser might have paid us to reach you with an ad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Two, we show people ads that we think that they\u2019re interested in, or products we think they\u2019re interested in, in part based on what their friends are interested in and what similar people with similar interests are interested in. So it could be that you were talking to someone about a product, and they, before, had to actually looked for or searched for that product, or that, in general, people with similar interests were doing the exact same thing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Three, you might have actually seen that ad before you had a conversation and not realized it. We scroll quickly, we scroll by ads quickly, and sometimes you internalize some of that, and that actually affects what you talk about later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Four, random chance, coincidence, it happens.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Still, despite his video, Mosseri seemingly expects this rumor to persist. \u201cI know some of you are just not going to believe me, no matter how much I try to explain it,\u201d he says. And many comments on the video are skeptical of the explanation: \u201cThat is exactly what I would say if I was listening to people\u2019s conversations,\u201d according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DPRA3qyEgWw\/c\/18114371968536987\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">one of the most-liked comments<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, the same day that Meta announced that it will soon use your AI chats to personalize the ads it [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}