Most cellphone users have noticed ads popping up for products they’ve been looking for, from jeans to jerky, leading them to suspect their phone is spying on them — and a blockbuster find related to a media company that works with Facebook and other giants seems to bear this out.
While it’s already known that searching for an item leads to you seeing more targeted ads for that product, just talking about it on your phone can apparently do the same thing.
The tech blog 404 Media just published what’s known as a “pitch deck,” a slideshow for clients, from media conglomerate Cox Media Group. In the pitch, CMG touts its “Active Listening” software that uses AI — and your phone’s microphone — to tailor ads based on what you’ve been yakking about.
The company also lists Amazon and Google among its clients: In fact, the blog explains, CMG was listed on Google’s “Partners Program” website — until 404 Media initially broke the story.
According to the slideshow, the software uses the microphone on smartphones, laptops and digital assistants like Amazon’s Alexa to take a listen to what you’re talking about buying. Based on that, ads are then shunted to you about just the thing you’ve been discussing.
“Advertisers can pair this voice-data with behavioral data to target in-market consumers,” the deck explains.
In response to the spying story, the companies in question are distancing themselves from CMG: Facebook tells 404 they’re investigating CMG for “terms of service violations,” and Amazon — one of CMG’s first advertising partners, according to 404 Media — insists it “has never worked with CMG on this program and has no plans to do so.”