Facebook patent would turn your mic on to analyze how you watch ads

As Facebook tries to get ahead of public pressure about what the service does and doesn't track about its users, a patent application has emerged which would enable something that the service's detractors have long theorized and feared: silently triggered microphones that keep tabs on Facebook users.

Lo went one further to offer statements of conscience about the filing: that the patent was filed to "prevent aggression from other companies" and that the patent will "never" be implemented in a Facebook product.