In May 2014 Facebook announced it would be rolling out an Identify TV and Music feature that would allow users who access the social media platform through their cell phones to identify and tag music or television programs playing in their area. When a user begins to compose a status update, Facebook will activate the phones microphone, filter out live conversations, and try to detect and identify audio programming. If a matching song is found, Facebook will include a sample of the music in the status; if a matching television program is found, Facebook will label the specific season and episode so you can avoid any spoilers: When writing a status update — if you choose to turn the feature on — youll have the option to use your phones microphone to identify what song is playing or what show or movie is on TV. That means if you want to share that youre listening to your favorite Beyoncé track or watching the season premiere of Game of Thrones, you can do it quickly and easily, without typing. If you share music, your friends can see a 30-second preview of the song. For TV shows, the story in News Feed will highlight the specific season and episode you’re watching, so you can avoid any spoilers and join in conversations with your friends after youve caught up. Facebook says the digital fingerprinting feature will be opt-in only, meaning users will have to give the program permission to start. Once activated, an icon on the face of the phone will indicate that the microphone is active and the phone is listening. Users who do opt in may still choose to turn off the feature on a post-by-post basis. (Audio fingerprinting will only be available in the United States and only via iOS and Android mobile apps; it will not function if Facebook is accessed through a browser.) Facebooks announcement was later updated to address rumors that the new app would listen in on, and store, user conversations: Myth: The feature listens to and stores your conversations. Fact: Nope, no matter how interesting your conversation, this feature does not store sound or recordings. Facebook isnt listening to or storing your conversations. Heres how it works: if you choose to turn the feature on, when you write a status update, the app converts any sound into an audio fingerprint on your phone. This fingerprint is sent to our servers to try and match it against our database of audio and TV fingerprints. By design, we do not store fingerprints from your device for any amount of time. And in any event, the fingerprints cant be reversed into the original audio because they dont contain enough information. Myth: Facebook is always listening using your microphone. Fact: Nope, if you choose to turn this feature on, it will only use your microphone (for 15 seconds) when youre actually writing a status update to try and match music and TV.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 03:21:07 +0000
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