This Company Says It Uses Your Phone’s Mic to Serve Ads for Facebook, Google, and More

There are plenty of ways to improve your privacy in the online world, but, one way or another, corporations both big and small find ways to mine user data, be it with or without the user’s consent.

One such case has caught our attention, where a marketing agency has been under fire since December 2023 (paywalled/subscribers-only coverage). They were seen promoting the use of an “Active Listening” tech developed by them that’s targeted at smartphones for collecting user voice data by using the on-board microphones and processing it using AI.

But, with a recent report by 404 Media (paywalled coverage), the situation turns out to be more grim than what was thought previously.

What’s Happening: In a pitch deck that has surfaced since the initial story broke out, Cox Media Group (CMG), a digital marketing outfit based out of Atlanta, Georgia, was spotted touting “the power of voice” in a pitch. In it, they outlined how they can use AI to collect and analyze voice data from users through more than 470 sources.

All of which can then be used by advertisers to target “in-market consumers” (users) when combining the voice data with behavioral data to identify an audience who is “ready-to-buy” in a targeted 10-mile radius (can go up to 20-mile).

All of that was being offered at a pulled weekly pricing of $100/day for the 10-mile radius option, and $200/day for the 20-mile option.

Of course, they didn’t stop at that; in the same pitch, they went on to brag about their long-running partnerships with Google, Amazon Advertising, and Facebook, with them claiming to be Amazon Advertising’s “FIRST EVER” media partner. See for yourself. 👇

You can download the pitch deck in question by clicking on the download button below, or by getting it directly from the source (404 Media) to take a closer look at what’s going on.

If you were looking to learn how their “Active Listening” tech works, then you can give Justin Wenokur‘s blog copy on archive.today. He is CMG’s Vice President of Digital Strategy, who originally wrote about it on their official website, but the blog has since been removed.

It’s an interesting read where CMG claims that listening in on a user’s phone is legal, and that:

When a new app download or update prompts consumers with a multi-page terms of use agreement somewhere in the fine print, Active Listening is often included.

Terminated Partnerships: Interestingly, an Amazon spokesperson has told 404 Media that its advertisement business “has never worked with CMG on this program and has no plans to do so“.

Similarly, Google has removed CMG from their Partners Program, and Meta, the owner of Facebook, has reportedly started a review of CMG to see if they violate any of their terms of service.

I tried searching for CMG on Meta’s Business Partners platform, and I couldn’t find it listed anywhere. Maybe they have already removed them?

A Worrying Situation Emerges: Considering, big tech can take advantage of such third-party “partners” to procure user data, even though they have guidelines in place on how such organizations can source data, who knows what happens behind the scenes?

Take, for instance, Instagram. Many people around the world have noticed that when they say some specific keyword, they are usually served a related advertisement to it, even if they have not searched for it in the past.

You will find plenty of cases like this if you start searching the web. If you ask me, this issue is not being taken as seriously as it should be and has been normalized with memes and whatnot.

If you are keen on learning more about the CMG fiasco, you can give the non-paywalled coverages of Fast Company and The Byte a read.

💬 Do you suspect your smartphone is snooping on you to target you with online advertisements? Please let me know in the comments below.

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