Marketing firm admits using your own phone to listen in on your conversations
A marketing firm whose clients include Facebook and Google has privately admitted that it listens to users’ smartphone microphones and then places ads based on the information that is picked up, according to 404 Media.
Cox Media Group, the television and radio news conglomerate, admitted in a pitch deck to investors that its “Active Listening” software uses artificial intelligence to “capture real-time intent data by listening to our conversations,” according to the report.
“Advertisers can pair this voice-data with behavioral data to target in-market consumers,” the company wrote in the pitch deck.
CMG noted in the deck that consumers “leave a data trail based on their conversations and online behavior” and that the AI-powered software collects and analyzes said “behavioral and voice data from 470+ sources.”
Google removed CMG from its “Partners Program” website after it was contacted by 404 Media to comment on the matter.
