Facebook in plot to listen in secret as we view ads

FACEBOOK has patented technology allowing it to record the sounds people make when they watch adverts on the social media platform.

Documents filed by the online giant in the US show it is developing technology to detect how users are reacting to a certain advert – and record possible laughs or groans.

This could help advertisers measure how successful certain commercials are and the effect they have on viewers. The patent, published on June 14, describes how Facebook could hide ‘a non-human hearable digital sound’ in the audio of adverts or other content.

When the sound is emitted, the microphone of the user’s phone would kick in and capture ‘ambient audio’. Facebook last night insisted it has no current plans to build the technology into products.

But the detailed 19-page document intricately lays out how the process would work – if it was ever put in place, Metro newspaper reported. The person’s reaction would be logged in an online database along with their details.

The description in the patent filed in California reads: ‘Extract the audio feature…[and] generate an ambient audio fingerprint distinctively identifying the content item broadcast to the household.’

The plans are likely to raise eyebrows following the Facebook data scandal which saw the details of millions of users compromised earlier this year. Personal information was farmed out to UK-based Cambridge Analytica without the knowledge of Facebook users. Allen Lo, Head of Intellectual Property at Facebook, last night said it was ‘common practice’ to file patents to ‘prevent aggression from other companies’.

He stressed: ‘Because of this, patents tend to focus on future-looking technology that is often speculative in nature and could be commercialised by other companies.’

‘The technology in this patent has not been included in any of our products, and never will be.’