Listening: New evidence against Amazon, Google and Meta
A journalistic investigation by 404 Media reveals explosive details about a possible “active listening” program for advertising optimization. New evidence suggests that tech giants such as Amazon, Google, and Meta continue to listen in on user conversations.
Wiretapping for personalized advertising?
Do you sometimes think your smartphone is listening to you? A recent study by the journalists’ association 404 Media suggests that this fear may not be unfounded. Journalists have gathered evidence that large technology companies such as Amazon, Google and Meta may continue to listen in or eavesdrop on their users’ conversations – for advertising purposes.
At the heart of the revelations is a pitch deck from media conglomerate Cox Media Group (CMG) that was leaked to 404 Media. In it, CMG advertises a service called “Active Listening” that is designed to target advertisements based on conversations near microphones on various devices. In its presentation, the company describes this practice as “creepy, but definitely great for marketing.”
Explosive partnerships
What is particularly alarming is that CMG explicitly names Facebook, Google, Amazon and Microsoft as partners for this program in the document. The presentation suggests that these tech giants could potentially have access to audio data from smartphones, smart speakers and smart TVs.
What would it mean for your business if you could reach out to potential customers who are actively discussing their need for your services in their everyday conversations? CMG in the pitch deck
Denials from the tech giants
On Request from Mashable However, all of the companies mentioned denied involvement in CMG’s “active listening” program. A Meta spokesperson said, “Meta does not use your phone’s microphone for advertising, and we have been open about that for years.” Similar statements came from Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.
Google even went a step further and kicked CMG out of its advertising partner program after 404 Media asked for comment. Meta is currently investigating whether CMG may have violated Facebook’s terms of service.
Old concerns, new explosiveness
The concern that technology companies are listening in on us is nothing new. Back in 2019, Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa caused a data protection scandal when it was revealed that the company did not delete recordings, but kept and transcribed them to improve the service. Google and Apple have also been found to have engaged in similar practices.
However, the new revelations from 404 Media give these old concerns new urgency. Even though the tech giants deny involvement in CMG’s “Active Listening”, questions remain unanswered: How could CMG name these companies as partners in its pitch deck? And what data does the media group actually use for its program? In addition, the new case now reminds us of the disclosure that 404 Media made at the end of 2023. At that time, they had also uncovered CMG’s machinations in connection with smartphones and smart TVs. At that time, the company had also advertised that “Active Listening” could optimize advertising display.
Technical background
It is important to understand that modern smartphones and smart devices really are “listening” all the time – but usually only for specific activation words like “Hey Siri” or “Alexa” and the initial processing of the commands takes place locally. This processing takes place locally on the device and should not send data to servers. However, research in the past has shown that this technology can lead to false activations.
However, the technology described by CMG would go far beyond this and require continuous analysis of conversations. This would not only produce enormous amounts of data, but also raise significant legal and ethical questions.
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