Report alleges that microphones on devices are used for "Active Listening" to deliver targeted ads

A report suggests that a major advertising company has used the microphone of devices to spy on users to deliver targeted ads. A report published by 404 Media spills the beans about the controversy.

The article is behind a paywall, but here's what it talks about.

Are your smart devices listening to you?

Cox Media Group (CMG), which is a partner of Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, claimed that it can deliver targeted adverts based on what users were talking near device microphones. The company does this via something called Active Listening. Apparently, CMG not only openly admitted that it could use its technology to listen to what users say near smart devices, it actually advertised its capabilities on a web page. Do you get it? They were bragging about wiretapping, on their website!

A set of pitch deck slides, obtained by 404 Media, highlights the features of Active Listening. You can access an archive of it here. CMG deleted the web page where it had bragged about Active Listening, the last time this controversy arose. That does seem like an admission of guilt, but that's not enough evidence.

Speaking of which, there was a similar allegation last year, but it had been promptly denied by Google and Amazon. According to Ars Technica, Google pointed out that Android has restrictions in place to prevent apps from capturing audio when they are not used. Android displays an icon when an app accesses the microphone (iOS does this too). Amazon had stated that Echo devices were only engaged when the user speaks the wake word. It had also clarified that users could review their voice history from the Alexa app's settings, and see what kind of data was processed. What else were they going to say?

Techdirt points out that this wasn't the first time Cox tried something like this, the cable giant wanted to embed microphones and cameras in cable boxes in 2009, to monitor people. An article by The Byte linked to an archived version of a blog post from CMG outlining the capabilities of Active Listening. Gizmodo says that Amazon told them it has not worked with CMG on the program, and has no such plans. Meta also denied the allegations. Google has ended its partnership program with CMG after the report by 404 Media was published. Make of that what you will.

The new pitch deck, which you can find here, highlights some alarming things like how AI can collect and analyze voice data from 470+ sources, and that includes behavioral data which can identify an audience that is "ready-to-buy" the products. One of the diagrams in the slides feature a smartphone, a TV and a smart speaker, probably an example of the devices that are being used to listen to users. The "Predictive Audience Technology" can then use the data to develop an audience list, and target them via ads. Honestly, it sounds far-fetched. Is this even possible? Which app does it use to listen to users?

I'm not saying that CMG is innocent, or that 404 Media is exaggerating about the controversy. But we need some proper evidence to form an accusation, so far everything seems to be purely circumstantial, based on the slides. Was this technology used or not is something that will remain a mystery.

This isn't a new theory, I have heard about some rather unusual experiences for nearly a decade, which closely resemble the allegations. People whom I know personally have claimed to have experienced devices that were listening to them, alleging that their phone displayed ads about things that they were talking about.

A friend of mine had once jokingly claimed that Facebook was showing ads for places related to locations where she wanted to go, and that it was like magic. Was the phone listening to her? I argued that it wasn't funny, and that she must have looked up those cities on Google (or Google Maps) via a browser, which could have then resulted in cross-site tracking by other websites. That data could, in combination with IP tracking, may have been associated with the social account that was being used. The social network could then use the data on other devices that the person owned, which could then result in ads for hotels, restaurants, stores in those places. It has to be targeted ads, that is the only logical explanation. But, that is still creepy.

Don't get me wrong, I have no love for social networks or big tech, I don't trust them, and I certainly won't defend their practices. But if you think, and analyze the evidence, there's not much to go about such allegations.

These marketing companies could be listening to your mobile device's microphone, I can't say they do, or do not. But, this is how social networks learn about you. You share your favorite food, sports team, books, movies, school, college or workplace, likes and dislikes, photos and videos of you, your family, your shopping habits, medical history, geolocation, etc. That is how they sell the ads to you, by profiling you. You are the product!

I know I'm probably going to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but guess what big tech's next weapon is? AI chatbots that you interact with by text, or speak to. You may think those chatbots are cool and helpful. But you are feeding them with your data, they learn your preferences, and everything about you, all in the pretext of simplifying your tasks. What are you talking about? The AI is assisting me and making my life easier, everything is processed on my device, anonymized and end-to-end encrypted. Are you sure about that? All it needs is a simple knock from a Government agency, and a backdoor will appear. They are not just training AI language models using your data, it is a tunnel that leads directly into your life. Windows Recall may just be the tip of the iceberg. AI tools are the biggest threat to our privacy, even worse than ads and trackers, because you are willfully using them.