In what would be a massive privacy breach if it were true, a major marketing company is claiming that it can eavesdrop on your conversations, through microphones in smartphones, TVs, and smart speakers.
Calling the claimed capability Active Listening, Cox Media Group (CMG) has been promoting the service on its website, and pitching it to brands …
404 Media reports.
A marketing team within media giant Cox Media Group (CMG) claims it has the capability to listen to ambient conversations of consumers through embedded microphones in smartphones, smart TVs, and other devices to gather data and use it to target ads, according to a review of CMG marketing materials by 404 Media and details from a pitch given to an outside marketing professional. Called “Active Listening,” CMG claims the capability can identify potential customers “based on casual conversations in real time” […]
“What would it mean for your business if you could target potential clients who are actively discussing their need for your services in their day-to-day conversations? No, it’s not a Black Mirror episode—it’s Voice Data, and CMG has the capabilities to use it to your business advantage,” CMG’s website reads […]
With Active Listening, CMG claims to be able to “target your advertising to the EXACT people you are looking for,” according to its website. The goal is to target potential clients or customers based on what they say in “their day to day conversations,” the website adds.
The company gave examples of things like consumers discussing a car lease coming to and, or a home AC unit needing replacement, to prompt ads addressing these needs.
404 Media linked to several sections of CMG’s website, but all of these links now redirect to the homepage. The marketing company didn’t respond to requests for comment.
This plays into a common tech scare story
The idea that our devices are listening to our conversations, and using the things we say to target ads to us, has long been one of the great tech scare stories.
Anecdotal claims of talking about something and then immediately seeing ads for it are common, but in almost all cases are easily explained by the fact that these people are also conducting relevant web searches, using relevant apps, and so on.
Other cases are explained by the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, often known as the red car syndrome. You get a red car, or plan to, and suddenly the whole world seems to be filled with red cars. They were always there, but because you are now paying more attention to them, it creates the illusion that they have increased in number. Ads you didn’t notice before start to be noticed when you are actively looking for that thing.
9to5Mac’s Take
Could this be real? Yes … but it’s not very likely.
It is technically possible. A rogue app leaves your microphone enabled, and then feeds the audio stream to a server somewhere, where an AI extracts content of interest and then uses that to generate ads for you.
However, that would take a lot of computing power simply to obtain data which is, frankly, far easier to get using nothing more hi-tech than cookies and device fingerprints based on your web browsing and app usage.
Additionally, iPhones protect against this in three ways. First, app review ought to pick up on apps which do nefarious things (even though it isn’t perfect). Second, any app which wants to use your microphone has to ask permission through an iOS popup, so it would need to be an app which has a legitimate reason to use your microphone. Third, iOS activates an orange dot in the iPhone status bar any time the mic is active. So if a rogue app was leaving your mic on to collect voice data, you’d see it.
A random smart speaker may not have such protections, but it would still be a hugely inefficient and expensive way to gather data which is readily available via other means.
Why CMG was claiming to have this capability – and why it has now disabled all the links relating to it – is a whole other question.
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