Is your phone listening to you for ads? This Facebook partner says yes

Is your phone listening to you for ads? That’s a million-dollar question that we’ve been asking. Sometimes, we can see ads of things that we’re saying out loud, almost as if the phone is listening and creating extremely and heavily targeted advertising.

A recent leak revealed that Cox Media Group, a partner of Meta-owned Facebook, uses “Active Listening” technology to secretly listen to your smartphone conversations and target ads based on what you talk about. This software collects voice data in real time and combines it with other user behavior data for more precise advertising.

“CMG was among the first 4 media companies worldwide to become a Facebook marketing partner,” the slideshow reads, which also enlists Amazon and Google.

This pitch deck, showing how CMG proposed using this method for ad targeting, has led Google to expel CMG from its Partner Program after being brought up by 404 Media and Amazon claims it never participated. The legality of such practices is questionable, but they are often buried in the fine print of app agreements.

A now-deleted Cox blog post dated back to 2023 even suggests burying Active Listening in the lengthy fine print, “We know what you’re thinking. Is this even legal? The short answer is: yes. It is legal for phones and devices to listen to you.”

“When a new app download or update prompts consumers with a multi-page terms of use agreement somewhere in the fine print, Active Listening is often included,” the statement reads further.

Ouch.