Our private conversations on the world’s leading social media app have always been under scrutiny and even our day-to-day conversations are potentially being heard, we just don’t know…

There have been numerous reports of adverts appearing coincidentally on our news feed, just hours after engaging in conversations that are scarily familiar to what we see down our timelines. Here’s a few examples of stories sent to the BBC:

“My fiancée and I both had wedding ads the day after we got engaged, before we had told anyone,” said Nate, from Springfield, in the US. “We bought the ring in the spur of the moment and never looked anything related up.

The same couple also reported receiving an advert about a certain type of liquor, after drinking it at a party a few weeks before.

Home security became an ad -

I visited a friend who was setting up security cameras at her house,” Melissa, from Australia, wrote. “I have never used the internet to look at anything remotely linked to home security, yet less than an hour after discussing how to set up the cameras, I had a Facebook ad for home security cameras.

“My phone had been in my pocket the whole time.”

How did Facebook respond to this?

Facebook’s vice-president of advertising, Rob Goldman, denied any claims about the social media network using microphones on users’ devices to eavesdrop on conversations to exploit them in target advertisements.

He replied to numerous tweets stating the rumors are “just not true” “We show ads based on people’s interests and other profile information — not what you’re talking out loud about.”

Even so, last year, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was pictured with tape covering his laptop’s webcam and microphone, prompting discussions on internet security.

No one is sure who to believe. Even though it appears wrong, Facebook has no reason not to carry this out. After all, it seems like an easy way to market products their users are talking about.

References: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41802282 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-29/facebook-denies-listening-through-phone-microphone-for-ads/9097024