Facebook could develop technology to spy on you through your webcam

Seeks to see how your facial expressions change as you come across different content

With all the outcry over privacy invasion, Facebook may be up for some more stick with the social media giant reportedly considering secretly watching and recording users.

Using your webcams and smartphone cameras, a newly discovered patent suggests Facebook seeks to use technology to see how your facial expressions change depending on what the type of content you come across.

It would analyse how users feel, and use that information to keep us at the site longer.



For instance, if you smile over a particular friends picture, the algorithm will generate more pictures of that friend on your news feed.

The patent application, submitted in February 2014 and published in August 2015, was only recently only recently spotted, by CBInsights.

However, Facebook says it does not plan to implement the technology. "We often seek patents for technology we never implement, and patents should not be taken as an indication of future plans,” according to a Facebook spokesperson.

Despite this, the document does raise concerns of what Facebook plans to do in its quest to personalise news feeds.

In 2014, Facebook was found to have secretly manipulated hundreds of thousands of users’ News Feeds as part of an experiment to work out whether it could affect people’s emotions through the type of information they choose to display. The company later admitted that it “failed to communicate clearly why and how we did it".



Last year, a picture posted by Mark Zuckerberg circulated on social media showed the Facebook founder covering his webcam and microphone with tape.

The public rather made a big deal out of it, but with the discovery of Facebook’s patent, the concern may arise again.

This article originally appeared on The Independent