Facebook said it would roll out a feature called “Identify TV and Music” to allow users to identify and tag music and TV programs playing in their area via Facebook. When users start to create their status update, Facebook will then activate the smartphone’s microphone to try and detect audio that’s playing. If a matching sample of the audio is found, then it will attempt to match it to a song; Facebook will then include a sample of it in the status.
Facebook will soon be listening to its users—literally—but some of them wish it would cover its ears. The social network is in the doghouse again, this time for an upcoming feature that will allow it to listen in on its users via their smartphone’s microphone. But the backlash might reveal more about people’s declining trust in Facebook than about the feature itself. Facebook said last week it will soon introduce “a new, optional way to share and discover music, TV and movies.” If users allow Facebook to access their microphone while they’re writing a status update, the company will identify the content playing in the background and automatically include it.
