Since Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012, the photo-sharing app has been plagued by suspicions that it has adopted some of its parent company’s habits when it comes to collecting user data. One of the most persistent beliefs is that Instagram is using phone microphones to listen to our conversations. However, this week, company head Adam Mosseri forcefully denied the theory in an interview on “CBS This Morning.”

During the interview, reporter Gayle King pushed back on Mosseri’s claim repeatedly, even flat-out stating “I don’t believe you.” However, Mosseri maintained his position, and said that there are two ways that users can see ads for things that they’ve recently talked about.

“One is dumb luck, which can happen,” Mosseri said. “The second is you might be talking about something because it’s top of mind because you’ve been interacting with that type of content more recently.”

“But we don’t look at your messages, we don’t listen in on your microphone, doing so would be super problematic for a lot of different reasons,” he continued. “But I recognize you’re not gonna really believe me.”

Since Facebook and Instagram’s methods are kept so secret, it’s hard to know for sure if Mosseri is telling the truth. Still, it’s telling that so many people — including reputable journalists — are willing to believe the worst about the social media giant’s privacy practices.

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