Facebook ad partner Cox could listen to a user’s conversations

The advertising industry has been trying to improve how it targets ads to users for years, often by mining data for information to build user profiles. However, in the latest revelation, it may have been assisted by smartphones and tablets actively monitoring your everyday conversations.

A slide deck from Cox Media Group seen by 404 Media discusses a service it offered that effectively performed surveillance on a user. Called “Active Listening,” the document leak says it could use a device’s microphone to listen in to a user’s speech whenever they are within audible range.

The idea was that the specialist software would capture voice data from the environment, determining what was being discussed or mentioned. That information would then be paired with existing behavioral data stored in a profile of the user, which in turn allowed for more tailored advertising to be displayed.

A slide from the CMG deck [404 Media]

The pitch deck refers to it as “capturing real-time intent data by listening” to conversations, which is analyzed by AI with over 470 other sources. It cost companies $100 per day to collect a weekly data set for users within a 10-mile radius using the feature.

Active Listening was previously detailed in an earlier report by the publication, which has prompted actions by the companies involved. This included CMG removing evidence of the program from its websites.

This included a blog post from November 2023 discussing how it was legal for phones and devices to listen to users. It also mentioned “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 also boasted that it has partnered with Amazon, Facebook, and Google, which acted as data sources and allegedly as clients of the service.

After being alerted to the existence of the slide deck and inbound reports, Google removed CMG from its “Parters Program.” This also prompted Meta to review CMG’s actions to determine if any terms of service have been broken.

Amazon insisted to the report that its advertising business hadn’t worked with CMG on the program, and that it didn’t plan to either.

While the prospect of mobile devices listening in could be a privacy nightmare, it’s not one that would affect Apple users.

Whenever a microphone is active, Apple’s devices display an indicator alerting the user to the activity. This can include an orange dot on an iPhone screen when the mic is being used, to a green indicator for the camera.

Even though Apple hardware is pretty much in the clear here, other hardware platforms may still use it. With billions of Android devices in the world, your conversations may still be snooped by advertisers.