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In Leak, Facebook Partner Brags About Listening to Your Phone’s Microphone to Serve Ads for Stuff You Mention (futurism.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The original article is behind a paywall at 404media.

In a pitch deck to prospective customers, one of Facebook's alleged marketing partners explained how it listens to users' smartphone microphones and advertises to them accordingly.

As 404 Media reports based on documents leaked to its reporters, the TV and radio news giant Cox Media Group (CMG) claims that its so-called "Active Listening" software uses artificial intelligence (AI) to "capture real-time intent data by listening to our conversations."

"Advertisers can pair this voice-data with behavioral data to target in-market consumers," the deck continues.

In the same slideshow, CMG counted Facebook, Google, and Amazon as clients of its "Active Listening" service. After 404 reached out to Google about its partnership, the tech giant removed the media group from the site for its "Partners Program," which prompted Meta, the owner of Facebook, to admit that it is reviewing CMG to see if it violates any of its terms of service.

An Amazon spokesperson, meanwhile, told 404 that its Ads arm "has never worked with CMG on this program and has no plans to do so. The spox added, confusingly, that if one of its marketing partners violates its rules, the company will take action.

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[–] [email protected] 67 points 2 months ago (3 children)

It's not the first time CMG has made that claim (https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/12/no-a-marketing-firm-isnt-tapping-your-device-to-hear-private-conversations/) and it's not any more credible this time around, although conspiracy theorists will have another field day.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I know little to nothing about android, but it seems like even if we assume CMG code is in (say) all of Facebook’s iOS apps, each one needs permission to use the camera and microphone so if you deny that permission what CMG claims would be impossible. And while Apple certainly has a spotty record in enforcing App Store rules, I feel like they’ve got a lot riding on being absolutely certain that FB and Google and Amazon apps aren’t violating those rules because those are going to be on every researcher’s list of apps to test for privacy compliance.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

yes but 99% of users give free access to everything.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not sure about iOS, but on Android you're not able to just give free access any more - it's either no access or "only while in use"

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

"Only while in use" counts when an app is allowed to run in the background as "in use". Allow push notifications? That app is running in the background.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Not since Android 9. Hopefully your phone is newer than 2018.

Not exactly sure when it was added, but newer versions also give you a notification/alert when your microphone and camera are in use.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

I have all of my apps set to "ask every time" but I think we should all assume these apps and your phone provider and manufacturer are acting in bad faith.

Luckily I have an external step counter and alarm clock, so I don't need my phone to be on most of the time.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago

The company added that it does not "listen to any conversations or have access to anything beyond a third-party aggregated, anonymized and fully encrypted data set that can be used for ad placement" and "regret[s] any confusion."

That doesn't sound like kooky bullshit to me. That sounds exactly like what the OP's title suggests.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

I'm no conspiracy theorist, but if I needed to discuss anything legal, I wouldn't want to do it near a phone. Or a newish car. Or a smart TV...

The list of things that could be listening to us if there's a vulnerability for the 3 letter agencies to exploit, is ridiculous. And outside of phone and desktop operating systems, few things get regular secrity updates.