You know 2020 has been one heck of a year for all of us. This Covid nightmare has to end soon! I recently had something happen to me on Facebook that really rattled me to the core. Have you ever been hacked? Or watched? Or recorded without your permission? Well now I can say, “Yes, I have”.
This year my husband and I got a notice that our main password had been compromised and we needed to change it immediately. At first I didn’t believe it. Then I asked my super smart IT husband, Bob, and he said, “yes, it’s true. That password is on the Dark Web now. Change the password on any sites you used it.” Oh my. I never knew I had signed up for so many sites before. It was a painstaking process. Thank goodness for Google and their Saved Password feature. I hadn’t used many of these apps for years. I had to look it up. Here is how to see your saved passwords from Google.(Click on link to be directed to Google)
Anyway, Google made it much easier to see what sites I had used that old password at. It was a painstaking process, but I deleted like 40 sites. One by one. That was the beginning of the ‘fun’ I had this month. Then on to FB (Facebook).
I admit it. I am human. Sometimes I just need to vent. I need to let out how I feel about a situation and then I can calm down. I may be a bit passionate about it though. My Husband and Pastor call me the Kraken when I do that, lol!
Well one evening I released the Kraken at home with my husband Bob. I was complaining about a situation that happened at Church. It doesn’t matter which church, or which people I was referring to. I said my piece, let it go, and I felt better. We went to bed and my husband said, “You should check your FB . I think you were hacked.” I told him, “I’ll check it tomorrow, I’m tired.” I thought I could just change my password and that would be that. Man, was I wrong.
The next morning I grabbed my phone and started sipping my coffee. I love coffee in the morning. Bob was in the kitchen making breakfast. I opened up my phone and the FB app. I had 2 messages from my friends asking if I was all right. Hmmm. One of them even showed me a screen shot from Messenger, the instant messaging part of FB. I gasped! What? Bob asked me what was up. I asked him to give me a minute.
Imagine my horror when I discovered that my private conversation where I was venting had been RECORDED by Facebook (without my consent or permission) and sent to my contacts. I told Bob, “I never typed this…I said it!) And now all of my friends knew of the private conversation as FB Messenger decided to record me and make it PUBLIC! My mind started racing a mile a minute. I thought of 3 things I could do right away:
1. I changed my FB and Messenger password.
2. I thought would be easy. I could just delete the conversation. I opened up my Messenger App and checked the side where it lists all of your conversations. There was no message that I had typed or one where the message was sent. This meant I could NOT delete the conversation. Messenger also had no record of who they had sent it to.
3. As I had no control over the account anymore. I deleted my FB and Messenger accounts.
After doing some research I got even angrier when I found out that Facebook had done this before! And been punished with a huge fine. Here is a great article by Today.com dated / Source: TODAY By Scott Stump.
“How to opt out of Facebook Messenger Audio to protect your conversations.”
Here is a clip from that Today.com article:
“A report by Bloomberg found that Facebook has been paying hundreds of outside contractors to transcribe clips of audio from its users, citing “people with knowledge of the work” who were told to transcribe the audio without being informed how and where it was obtained.
Facebook confirmed to NBC News that it had engaged in the practice but said that it “paused human review of audio more than a week ago.”
The company added that the only users affected chose a transcription option in their Messenger app and that it masked the audio so the users’ identities were not revealed to third-party transcribers.
Third-party contractors told Bloomberg they felt the work was unethical because users didn’t know their audio would be reviewed and transcribed.
Facebook told NBC News it was reviewing the audio to make sure its artificial intelligence was working properly.”
If you read the article the author Scott Stump teaches you how to TURN YOUR MICROPHONE OFF ON FACEBOOK AND MESSENGER. I sent this article to all my children and friends – via Email.
I am disappointed in Facebook, Messenger, and Mark Zuckerberg. It is an invasion of my privacy to record my conversations without my consent. And then have them sent to a 3rd party place to be transcribed and then sent out to my contacts. All so you can target ads to me? I don’t want your ads! I am no longer a customer. What they did was wrong.
What do you think? Have you ever been hacked? Have you had this happen to you? Is your microphone ON in Facebook and Messenger? I have more apologies to make. My private vent should have never been shared FB and Messenger. You are rude beyond belief.
More Sources:
- abc17news.com – How to stop Facebook from listening to your phone conversations.
- Komando.com – How to stop all of your smart devices from listening to you.
