"We know what you're thinking. Is this even legal?"

"We know what you're thinking. Is this even legal?"

Actively Creepy

In a pitch deck to prospective customers, one of Facebook's alleged
marketing partners explained how it listens to users' smartphone
microphones and advertises to them accordingly.

As [1]404 Media reports based on [2]documents leaked to its reporters,
the TV and radio news giant Cox Media Group (CMG) claims that its
so-called "Active Listening" software uses artificial intelligence to
"capture real-time intent data by listening to our conversations."

"Advertisers can pair this voice-data with behavioral data to target
in-market consumers," the deck continues.

In the same slideshow, CMG counted Facebook, Google, and Amazon as
clients, though it didn't specify whether they were involved in the
"Active Listening" service. After 404 reached out to Google about its
partnership, the tech giant removed the media group from the site for
its "[3]Partners Program."

A Meta spokesperson also pushed back in a statement, saying that CMG
was a general partner, not a partner in the program advertised in the
deck.

"Meta does not use your phone's microphone for ads and we've been
public about this for years," the statement read. "We are reaching out
to CMG to get them to clarify that their program is not based on Meta
data."

And an Amazon spokesperson told 404 that its Ads arm "has never worked
with CMG on this program and has no plans to do so."

Ill-Fated Admissions

This latest leak marks the third time in a year that 404 has reported
on CMG's shady voice targeting service. Last December, the independent
news site not only put a marketing company on blast for [4]boasting
about such creepy tech on its podcast, and also [5]revealed the
existence of CMG's Active Listening feature.

Together with this latest update to the CMG saga, these stories bolster
[6]longstanding suspicions about advertisers using our phones to listen
to us.

"We know what you're thinking. Is this even legal?" a [7]since-deleted
Cox blog post from November 2023 noted. "It is legal for phones and
devices to listen to you. 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."

Beyond taking a big game, CMG did not cop to how it acquires its
alleged voice data, instead saying only that it can identify users who
are "ready-to-buy" and create targeted ad lists based on their
interests. For this service, the media group that [8]specializes in
hyperlocal news charges $100 per day to target folks in a 10-mile
radius, and $200 per day to target those in a 20-mile radius.

CMG didn't respond to questions about the story.

Given that the company boasted about it on its public — and [9]still
archived — website before anyone began paying attention, however, it
seems like it would be pretty hard at this juncture to deny that it was
charging for its eavesdropping services.

Updated with a denial from Meta that it's involved in the Active
Listening program.

More on privacy: [10]Hackers May Have Leaked Every American Social
Security Information

References

1. https://www.404media.co/heres-the-pitch-deck-for-active-listening-ad-targeting/
2. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25051283-cmg-pitch-deck-on-voice-data-advertising-active-listening?ref=404media.co
3. https://ads.google.com/intl/en_us/home/partners/become-a-partner/?ref=404media.co
4. https://www.404media.co/mindsift-brags-about-using-smart-device-microphone-audio-to-target-ads-on-their-podcast/
5. https://www.404media.co/cmg-cox-media-actually-listening-to-phones-smartspeakers-for-ads-marketing/
6. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/11/12/phone-audio-targeting-privacy/
7. https://archive.is/pSBzD
8. https://www.axios.com/2023/08/22/exclusive-cox-media-group-launches-hyper-local-streaming-service-neighborhood-tv
9. https://archive.is/pSBzD
10. https://futurism.com/the-byte/hackers-social-security-information