A new report reveals that a marketing firm, Cox Media Group (CMG), has admitted to using technology that listens to people’s phone conversations to serve targeted ads. This practice, referred to as “Active Listening,” involves artificial intelligence to capture data from users’ conversations.
According to a pitch deck obtained by 404 Media, CMG’s Active Listening software collects real-time data from smartphone microphones. “Advertisers can pair this voice-data with behavioral data to target in-market consumers,” the pitch deck states.
The report mentions that CMG’s software gathers data from over 470 sources to analyze both behavioral and voice data. The firm has clients including Facebook and Google, although Google has since removed CMG from its “Partners Program” website following the report.
Google commented, “All advertisers must comply with all applicable laws and regulations as well as our Google Ads policies. When we identify ads or advertisers that violate these policies, we will take appropriate action.”
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is reviewing CMG to ensure it does not violate any terms of service. A Meta spokesperson said, “Meta does not use your phone’s microphone for ads and we’ve been public about this for years. We are reaching out to CMG to get them to clarify that their program is not based on Meta data.”
Amazon, another company mentioned in the report, said it has never worked with CMG on this program and has no plans to do so. The company also stated that it would take action against any partner that violates its rules.
Last December, MindSift, a New Hampshire-based company, also claimed to use voice data from phone microphones for targeted advertising.
CMG’s blog post from November 2023, which has since been deleted, suggested that while listening to conversations is legal, it is often buried in the fine print of app agreements.
The report raises questions about privacy and the legality of such practices.
