If you use this app, your smartphone listens to your conversations

© Pexels/Alex Green

We've all experienced targeted advertising about a product we just mentioned in a conversation. A fact that is far too big to be a coincidence, and which is confirmed once again today.

An American media giant, Cox Media Group, is developing an advertising tool dubbed “Active Listening” which would use audio recordings from our connected devices to target ads.

Obviously, this practice raises many ethical and legal questions, calling into question the confidentiality of our most intimate conversations. At the heart of this controversy: Facebook, one of the most widely used applications in the world.

Active listening, a worrying reality

The concept is based on a simple but invasive idea: using the microphones of our smartphones, connected speakers and other smart objects to capture keywords in our daily conversations. These keywords would then be used to determine our interests and our purchasing intentions, allowing advertisers to target us with surgical precision.

In concrete terms, if you mention out loud your desire to buy a new pair of running shoes, the application could record this information and transmit it to advertisers. You could then risk seeing advertisements for running equipment appear on your social networks in the hours or days that follow.

A document that speaks volumes

It is an internal document from Cox Media Group, revealed by the site 404 Media, which brought to light the existence of this controversial project. These slides, intended to present the tool to potential partners, leave little room for doubt as to the company's intentions.

We learn in particular that the tool would be capable of “capturing intent data in real time by listening to our conversations”.Even more worrying, it would allow this voice data to be associated with our online behaviors to target consumers ready to buy.

The document also mentions the use of artificial intelligence to analyze this voice and behavioral data, coming from no less than 470 different sources. A massive collection that raises questions about the real scale of this surveillance.

Tech giants in turmoil

© Dima Solomin – Unsplash

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Cox Media Group does not hesitate to highlight its partnerships with the most large technology companies to establish the credibility of its project. Google, Amazon and Facebook are thus cited as partners in the document.

However, in the face of the emerging controversy, these web giants seem to want to distance themselves. Google has thus declared that it has ended its advertising partnership with Cox Media Group. Amazon claims to have never worked on this specific program, while Meta (Facebook's parent company) simply recalls its policies regarding the use of microphones for targeted advertising.

These mixed reactions nevertheless raise questions about the knowledge that these companies had of the “Active Listening” project. and on their possible involvement, even indirect, in its development.

A worrying legal vagueness

The legality of such a device is questionable. In the United States, many states have wiretapping laws that require explicit consent from those being recorded. In California, for example, the law requires consent from both parties for any recording of a conversation.

How does Cox Media Group intend to comply with these regulations?? The document does not specify. Presumably, the company is relying on the terms of use of connected applications and devices, which are often accepted without being read by users because they are so long and complicated, to obtain this consent. A practice that, if it were to prove legal, would nonetheless remain ethically questionable.

Protecting your privacy in the era of everything connected

Faced with these revelations, we are entitled to be concerned about our privacy. Facebook, with its billions of active users, is at the heart of these concerns. The application, already criticized for its management of personal data, is a major vector of this active listening.

Users must therefore be extra vigilant, in particular by checking the authorizations granted to the application, in particular access to the microphone. It is also recommended to deactivate voice features when not in use and to carefully read the social network's terms of use.

• Cox Media Group is developing “Active Listening,” an advertising tool that would use audio recordings from our connected devices to target ads
• The tool captures keywords in our conversations to determine our purchasing intentions and interests
• The legality and ethics of this practice are being questioned, while tech giants are trying to distance themselves from the project

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