Tech buzz: Facebook Wants To Listen In On What You're Doing

Facebook Wants To Listen In On What You're Doing

Facebook had two big announcements this week that show the company's wildly divergent takes on the nature of privacy.

One announcement is that the company is encouraging new users to initially share only with their "friends" rather than with the general public, the previous default. And for existing users, the company plans to break out the old "privacy dinosaur" to do a " check-up" to remind people of how they're sharing. Facebook employees say that using an extinct creature as a symbol for privacy isn't subtle messaging, but simply an icon to which their users respond well.

Meanwhile, Facebook's second announcement indicated just how comfortable they think their users are in sharing every little thing happening in their lives.

Facebook is rolling out a new feature for its smartphone app that can turn on users' microphones and listen to what's happening around them to identify songs playing or television being watched.