Since appearing on the IPO in 2012, Facebook has filed thousands of patent applications from varied domains.\nAs an example, one of its applications describes the usage of selfie cameras for analysis of facial\nexpressions that\ncustomizes the feed of the user according to their mood. Another application discloses using the microphone on a user\u2019s phone to determine the TV shows he\/she watches. Other applications can guess how\nsoon the user\nmay get married, predicts their social and economic status and even tracks their sleeping pattern. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a nutshell, Facebook takes up\nevery opportunity of knowing about its users` lives \u2013 their location, communication means and patterns, their fashion choices or favorite brands, and even policies they care about. However, not all of\nthe technologies they patent appear in their products. Rather the majority of technologies described in their patents have not been put in any of their currently\navailable products. But, no one knows\nfor sure if they are using these technologies in a manner unknown to the common\nuser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Below is a list of some such patent \/ patent applications that will be under a lot of critique if Facebook decides to use them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Facebookhas filed a patent (US20150356180A1<\/a>) that discloses a way to determine if a user is in a relationship. It does so by taking into consideration how often one visits another user`s account, the number of persons on a user\u2019s profile picture, percentage of male\/female friends, etc. The social networking system identifies certain types of interactions between the user and additional users as indicators and determines a value for an indicator based on a number of additional users associated with the indicator that identify a relationship status of single and a number of additional users associated with the indicator that identify a relationship status other than single.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another patent by Facebook (US 9,740,752<\/a>) discloses the use of methods like Extraversion degree\nevaluation, sociability, emotive health, etc.to determine a user\u2019s\npersonality. This is then\nused to tailor and populate their feed. This feature is about identifying your extraversion\ndegree, how open and emotionally stable you are rather than applying the\ncharacteristics mentioned above to pick stories and\/or advertisements available\nfor being displayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next patent (US20120016817A1<\/a>)\ntries\nto predict what changes will occur in the life of its users. It uses their posts and messages as well as their credit card location to\nforecast a big event in their life, such as the birth of a child, someone`s death or completion of\nschool. It also uses\ntheir life change events such as a change in marital status, relationship\nstatus, employment status, etc. to generate a training set of data comprising\nhistorical data of other users who have gone through a life change event. The\nsystem updates the user’s profile to indicate the life change event and\nprovides advertisements to the user responsive to the prediction of one or more\nlife change events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n US 8,472,662<\/a> discloses a method that performs an analysis of images shared by the users and creates a unique \u00absign\u00bb of a camera commanding defective pixels or marks on the lens. This signature can be used to determine who uploads the photos taken from a user\u2019s phone or camera. It may also be used to identify how close the users are with someone by analyzing the frequency of how often the users make use of the same phone or camera. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another patent application US20170195435A1<\/a> discloses a correlation of the usage of\nmultimedia with profiles of users. It analyzes the microphone on the\nsmartphone of the user in order to find TV shows they watch \u2013 and whether advertising is switched on or off. In addition, it uses an electrical example of\nobstacles made by the telecommunication cable in order to guess what shows the users\nwatch. This data\ncan be used to show related advertisements to the user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In another patent application US20160316341A1<\/a>,\nFacebook discloses a method of tracking the user\u2019s location and behaviour 24X7\nand saving the data in a log. The log includes a number of entries that\nindicate a geo-location of the user at a particular time of day of a particular\nday of a week. The data may be used to send notifications to others if any deviation from\nthe standard occurs. It may also be used to specifically locate the user at any\ntime or predict where the user will be at a particular time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Similarly, US 9,369,983<\/a>\ndiscloses a method to store statistics of long-term location tracking to compare the user\u2019s\nlocation with\nthe location of their friends, in order to define their close friends depending on the\nfrequency of\ncommunication or meetups. The user\ndevices store the sets of data and extract the statistics from the sets of\ndata that represent behavioral pattern of the users. In addition, it also suggests tracking the user\u2019s phone location in a fixed\nposition to determine the number of hours they sleep or tasks they perform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only Facebook, other technology companies have also applied for such patents. For example, Amazon\u2019s bracelets (US 9,881,276<\/a>) to track warehouse employees and Google Teddy bear (US20150138333A1<\/a>) complete with a camera, microphone and a speaker to control\nmedia devices. Sometimes, corporations apply\nfor patents pre-emptively in order to outdistance competitors in accordance\nwith a new technology, even if they are not going to use it. Same may be\nthe case with Facebook. But we have to agree that a lot of its patents represent new methods of\ngathering, analysis and use of private data for advertising, a process that is\nquintessential for\nthe\nkind of business model\non\nwhich Facebook thrives. Almost 99% of Facebook\u2019s turnover accounted to advertisement during the first quarter of the year 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even after the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Facebook continues to gather personally\nidentifiable information of its users. It is up to us to be careful because one can use this data for more artful purposes than target advertising. Dr. Jennifer King, the Director of Privacy at the Center for Internet\nand Society, believes such data may be used to influence or manipulate the emotions of users. <\/p>\n\n\n\n People may say what they want to, but the reality is that there are two billion active\nusers daily on\nFacebook, the\nmajority of which are sharing their ideas, thoughts, and feelings on a\nplatform which collects their private data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n2. The Personality Qualifier<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3. The Future Predictor<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
4. The Closeness Identifier <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
5. The Silent Advertiser<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
6. The Geo-Locator<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
7. The Behaviour Analyser <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
About the author<\/h3>\n\n\n\n