Large Marketing Firm Admits to Using Software to Listen to People’s Smartphones

A new report from the tech news site 404 Media revealed that the marketing company Cox Media Group (CMG) admitted in a pitch to investors to be actively listening through people’s smart devices’ microphones for its advertisement strategies.

The marketing conglomerate considered Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Bing as partners in the presentation—although they later denied being related to this marketing strategy. CMG explained that its software, called “Active Listening,” can collect data to target ads with high accuracy.

“Voice data goes beyond search engine data, so every casual conversation between two consumers becomes a tool for you to target, retarget, and retain customers,” states the document shared in November 2023. “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 AI software can tell the advertiser company what conversations are relevant and when to listen. The company developed a marketing system with the use of AI to target advertising through multiple platforms.

“Voice Data is in its early days, but the ROI is already impressive,” states the document in the conclusion. “When you’re ready to scale, we’re ready to talk.”

Mashable reached out to the tech giants mentioned by the marketing company. “Meta does not use your phone’s microphone for ads and we’ve been public about this for years,” said a spokesperson from Meta. “We are reaching out to CMG to get them to clarify that their program is not based on Meta data.”

Microsoft, Amazon, and Google also responded and denied being involved with the “Active Listening” software. “Amazon Ads has never worked with CMG on this program and has no plans to do so,” said a spokesperson from Amazon. A spokesperson from Microsoft declared that the company is investigating the allegations and will take the necessary actions.