“It’s True. Your Devices Are Listening to You,” stated the title for a sales pitch on the website of a major media conglomerate; however, the statement wasn’t a warning about the invasive eavesdropping practice that many suspect that tech companies undertake, but instead it was a boast: media company Cox Media Group is (or at least was) using the microphones on users’ mobile phones, smart TVs and other devices, using what they call “Active Listening” software to “capture real-time intent data by listening to our conversations” in order to target individuals with ads based on conversations their personal devices overhear.
Cox Media Group [CMG] is a media conglomerate that owns numerous television and radio stations across the United States, and launched a “hyper-local” streaming service in August 2023. Allegations regarding the company’s Active Listening program first surfaced in November 2023 when internal documents were leaked to online magazine 404 Media; the presentation, referred to as a “pitch deck”, explained to prospective advertising clients that their software can “capture real-time intent data by listening to our conversations” from smart devices through “470+ sources”, and uses AI “to improve campaign deployment, targeting and performance.”
“We know what you’re thinking. Is this even legal?” a blog post made by CMG in November 2023 asked; it turns out that, technically speaking, it is: “It is legal for phones and devices to listen to you,” the since-deleted blog post explained. “When a new app download or update prompts consumers with a multi-page term of use agreement somewhere in the fine print, Active Listening is often included.”
CMG’s pitch deck also claimed that the company was partnered with tech giants Amazon, Google and Meta, “and they keep us in the know.” However, in a statement to 404 Media, Amazon said that their advertising arm “has never worked with CMG on this program and has no plans to do so,” while a Meta spokesperson clarified that CMG was only a general partner with the company, and not one of their marketing partners, as was claimed in the sales deck.
“Meta does not use your phone’s microphone for ads and we’ve been public about this for years,” the statement claimed. “We are reaching out to CMG to get them to clarify that their program is not based on Meta data.”
When asked by 404 Media about their relationship with CMG, Google dropped the media company from their Google Partners program.
It’s unclear as to how CMG was gathering the voice data—whether it was through the individual partners’ aps or other software—or how many users may have been impacted by the program, only that it was capable of identifying users that were “ready-to-buy” and could generate ad lists tailored to those individuals’ supposed interests. CMG was charging clients $100 per day to target individuals within a 10-mile radius, and $200 to expand that area to a 20-mile radius.
Currently, it’s also unclear as to whether or not the use of Active Listening practices is isolated to CMG, or if the practice is widespread; however, a search through your aps’ end user license agreements (EULA) for keywords such as “active listening” might reveal if any of the companies involved may have at least left that door open for such behavior.
Regardless, the next time an ad that is related to what you and a friend were just talking about pops up on your phone, your paranoia might just be warranted.
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As one of those fabulous, funny El Arroyo restaurant signs says:
“FAVE WAY TO ONLINE
SHOP? I JUST YELL OUT
WHAT I WANT & WAIT
FOR AN AD TO POP UP”
All too true!!!!
Ive seen that idea thrown about, and based on this article i think its a valid thing.
As your next birthday gets near, starting talking about things you want near your partners phone.
It will then pitch products to them, which will resonate with them as something they think you would like as a gift
Heres what happened to us last week
My wife using a new phone was talking to her sister one evening in a suburb miles away from home.
The topic was her niece Olivia who has Autism.
This was not a text conversation it was a verbal one
She returned home and plugged her phone into her computer to download a video of the event she went to.
My computer which shares a modem then showed an Ad in FB for…….
Laminated ID card with lanyard. “My name is Olivia and i have Autism” was on the product picture.
It seems far too unlikely to be just a coincidence.
Mike, agreed. These spyware programs are no joke. I almost never use apps and I don’t leave my computer turned on after using it. On the other hand, we bought a new car last year and the front console occasionally speaks up when my family and I are driving in the car and conversing. I just say “Stop!” in a loud voice and it shuts up until the next time. The only time I use that console is in rare use of the “driving directions” feature.
The speed at which the AI crafted a personalized ad was both spooky and impressive. That image was created just for us, one single potential customer.
Another example that was on local morning TV recently was a journalist who was several suburbs away from his home to go to a hardware store that had the very last item in stock in the entire chain that he wanted. As they drove into the carpark he had a conversation with his wife in the car about needing to give some thought to schools for his 5 year old.
His phone then started pitching ads for enrollments in the area that hardware store was in.
In this case the pitch was no good, since they would never enroll their kid that far from home. But the implications are big, it knew what you were interested in and had his geolocation data as well
Big Data is a powerful thing, they envisage a world where as you go up the escalator in a mall or shop that the TV screens you pass will show ads just for you.
As one customer goes up, its an ad for golf clubs in the sporting department because your phone has told them you play golf. The next customer gets an ad for Books by authors you are reading because your phone has told them that too.
The in store AI knows who you are and what you like as you walk into the shop and it knows where you are in the shop, so the screens you pass have ads that apply directly to you.
This application may seem benign, and even logical as a sales mechanism, But it also has Orwellian applications too