Documents from Cox Media Group have resurfaced on the network: the media conglomerate claims to listen to users through the microphones of devices and sell this data to advertisers. In fact, CMG’s claims do not look plausible.
Active Espionage
The presentation of Cox Media Group, which was published by the online publication 404media, talks about the Active Listening program. It includes smart devices that can “capture real-time intent data by listening to conversations.”
“What if you could target prospects who discuss the need for your services in everyday conversations? No, this is not an episode of Black Mirror. This is voice data.”
The materials also mention CMG’s partnerships with Google, Amazon, and Meta*. All three corporations produce equipment with built-in microphones: smartphones, all kinds of smart home accessories, virtual reality helmets, and so on. The presentation leads to the conclusion that it is the tech giants that supply CMG with the same voice data.
A November 2023 blog post by Cox Media Group states that “wiretapping on phones and smart devices is legal.” And allegedly, the owners of the devices themselves allowed tracking when they agreed to “multi-page terms of use” offering certain applications during installation. This note has now been deleted.
CMG does not disclose how Active Listening works. It is only mentioned that voice data comes from 470 partners, and artificial intelligence is used in their analysis. The processed information is used to target advertisements. The service costs $100 per day for geo-positioning ads for users within a 16 km radius of a given point.
What’s wrong here
CMG’s presentation did not specify the extent of cooperation with Google, Amazon and other technology companies. At the same time, the media conglomerate, which owns many newspapers, television and radio stations, apparently used the services of partners to advertise its sites.
But are Google and others involved in the scheme with Active Listening? Representatives of Google and Amazon denied this. And Meta* clarified that in the CMG presentation, the company is mentioned exclusively as a general advertising partner.
Cox Media Group does not disclose how conventional consumer devices decrypt or send many gigabytes of audio data to an external server. A sharp increase in the consumption of Internet traffic or computing resources is easy to detect, especially in the case of undemanding hardware and traffic-intensive speakers and other smart home solutions. For the first time, the general public became aware of Active Listening at the end of 2023. During this time, evidence of the technology working on real gadgets would certainly have been found.
Claims about the legality of Active Listening are also unfounded. In particular, California laws expressly prohibit recording and listening to confidential communications without the consent of all parties involved. Even if the owner of a particular device has knowingly authorized wiretapping, CMG does not have the right to use recordings of that person’s conversations with others.
The use of voice data for advertising targeting is not news. In 2022, Amazon admitted that it sets up ads, among other things, based on user interactions with the Alexa assistant. But CMG employees emphasize that they know what people are talking about at any time. That is, this happens not only after the microphone is intentionally activated.
