London

A major marketing company whose clients include Facebook, Amazon and Google has admitted that it listens to users' smartphone conversations and uses artificial intelligence (AI) to articulate data and later place advertisements.  

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Cox Media Group (CMG) privately admitted to the long-held suspicions of smartphone users during a pitch deck to investors. The firm stated that its “Active Listening” software uses AI to “capture real-time intent data by listening to our conversations", according to a report in 404 Media.

"Advertisers can pair this voice data with behavioural data to target in-market consumers," CMG said in the pitch deck. 

"Consumers leave a data trail based on their conversations and online behaviour and the AI-powered software collects and analyses behavioural and voice data from 470+ sources," it added. 

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Companies issue statement 

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After the outlet's report, Google removed CMG from its "Partners Program" website.

“All advertisers must comply with all applicable laws and regulations as well as our Google Ads policies, and when we identify ads or advertisers that violate these policies, we will take appropriate action,” a Google spokesperson was quoted as saying by NY Post. 

Meanwhile, Meta, the parent company of Facebook said it was reviewing CMG to assess whether it violated any of its terms of service.

“Meta does not use your phone’s microphone for ads and we’ve been public about this for years,” Meta spokesperson said. 

Also read | Mark Zuckerberg reveals Biden administration 'pressured' Meta to censor Covid-related posts

This is not the first time when a company has claimed to be hearing real-life conversations through a smartphone. Last year, MindSift, a New Hampshire-based company similarly claimed that it used voice data to place targeted ads. 

“We know what you’re thinking. Is this even legal?” the company wrote in a since-deleted Cox blog post from November 2023.

“It is legal for phones and devices to listen to you. When a new app download or update prompts consumers with a multi-page term of use agreement somewhere in the fine print, Active Listening is often included.”

(With inputs from agencies)