A top university professor claims that Facebook are listening in on people’s private conversations all the time. According to the professor, the Facebook app might be using a person’s phone to gather data on what they are talking about without the person realising it. Professor Kelli Burns from the University of South Florida has drawn attention to a feature that Facebook say has been around for a couple of years. Independent.co.uk reports: Professor Burns has said that the tool appears to be using the audio it gathers not simply to help out users, but might be doing so to listen in to discussions and serve them with relevant advertising. She says that to test the feature, she discussed certain topics around the phone and then found that the site appeared to show relevant ads. Though Professor Burns said she was not convinced that Facebook is listening in on conversations – it may have been that she was searching for the same things that she chose to discuss around the phone – but she said that it wouldn’t be a surprising move from the site. The claim chimes with anecdotal reports online that the site appears to show ads for things that people have mentioned [...]