Facebook denies it is listening into its users' conversations to learn more about them

Sceptics have offered a range of other explanations as to why the site is so good at aiming ads

Facebook's vice president for Latin America, Diego Dzodan, poses for a photograph at Estacao Hack on Paulista Avenue in Sao Paulo's financial centre, Brazil August 25, 2017 (REUTERS/Nacho Doce)

Facebook has promised that it is not using people's phones to listen in on their conversations.

A number of people report seeing ads for something they've discussed, but not searched for or looked at on their phone at all. That has led many to suggest that the app is listening to its users in the background, and using that data to show ads to users.

That led to a hugely viral video post on Reddit, which purported to show evidence that Facebook was listening. And it was just one of many viral claims that the company is using phones' mics to listen in on their users.

Facebook has been found to be using workarounds within the app to – drawing particular criticism for playing silent ads in the background to allow it to stay open. But senior members of its ads team have said that it never listens in to its users without asking them.

The latest denial came in response to a podcast host who publicly asked for stories that seemed to verify that. PJ Vogt, who hosts the podcast Reply All, asked for some examples of the bizarre coincidences that many Facebook users have reported.

"I run ads product at Facebook. We don't - and have never - used your microphone for ads. Just not true," Rob Goldman, Facebook's vice-president of ads, posted on Twitter. Facebook managers have taken to the rival site in recent weeks in an apparently attempt to head off criticism, including over the election.

Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, who used to run Facebook's ads and business platform before moving to a different job with the company, simply replied "incorrect".

A number of explanations for the apparent eavesdropping have been offered that claim to solve the mystery of why Facebook shows such accurate ads. One suggests that it is an example of the Baader-Meinhof effect, where people might have seen the same ads before but skipped over them since they didn't have any relevance; others claim that Facebook is probably building up a picture of what you've been talking about through other means, like watching for friends searching for a certain thing, which you might all have been talking about.

But the denials may be unlikely to put a stop to the speculation. The last time that claims Facebook was listening to its users surfaced, the company put a permanent page on its website.

"Some recent articles have suggested that we must be listening to people's conversations in order to show them relevant ads. This is not true," it read.

"We show ads based on people's interests and other profile information - not what you're talking out loud about."