Facebook Patent Would Turn Your Mic On To Analyze How You Watch Ads

Enlarge / Nothing like cartoony smiley faces to break down how smartphones, local networks, and TV devices could join forces to trigger microphones and listen to advertisements' audio. (credit: US Patent + Trademark Office) As Facebook tries to get ahead of public pressure about what the service does and doesn't track about its users, a patent has emerged which would enable something that the service's detractors have long theorized and feared: silently triggered microphones that keep tabs on Facebook users. The patent, filed by Facebook in December 2016 and published on June 14 (PDF), emerged this week thanks to its discovery by UK publication Metro.