Hundreds of thousands support petition against ‘privacy sensitive’ feature Facebook

Nearly 600,000 people worldwide have signed a petition against a new ‘privacy sensitive’ feature from Facebook. That company introduced a feature for its apps, where the microphone is on when writing status updates.

Facebook announced the opt-in feature for its iOS and Android apps late last month. The feature means that the application can activate the microphone when writing status updates. This is especially useful for sharing a song from a movie, for example, Facebook claims, because the song doesn’t have to be searched first.

The microphone option, which has yet to be rolled out, was met with opposition immediately after the announcement. Opponents argue that the feature threatens privacy, because it also allows Facebook to record conversations and ambient sounds. In addition, many users would not read any warning about using the microphone.

Nearly 600,000 people signed the petition against the feature Monday afternoon, while the target is 750,000. Facebook says in a response that it wants to continue the plan, because the function is ‘completely optional’. In addition, the company behind the world’s largest social network states that recordings are not saved and that the microphone is only activated for fifteen seconds when writing status updates.