Facebook may secretly watch and record you via webcams

Social media giant Facebook is planning to secretly watch and record users through their webcams and smartphone cameras, reveals a new patent.

This patent would automatically add emotional information to text messages, predicting the user’s emotion based on methods of keyboard input. The visual format of the text message would adapt in real time based on the user’s predicted emotion. As the patent notes, it can be hard to convey mood and intended meaning in a text-only message. Hence, this system would aim to reduce misunderstandings.

The system could mostly, pick up data from the keyboard, mouse, touch pad, touch screen, or other input devices. It would predict emotions based on relative typing speed, how hard the keys are pressed, movement (using the phone’s accelerometer), location, and other factors, adds CB Insights.

The system would also try to analyze facial expressions of users and use that information to keep users for a longer duration on the website. To integrate emotional data into the messages, the patent notes that Facebook could change the text font, size, spacing, or use other formatting tools as well.

According to a report by Independent, a Facebook spokesperson stated, “We often seek patents for technology we never implement, and patents should not be taken as an indication of future plans.” The patent application was submitted in February 2014 and published in August 2015.