We’ve all gotten a bit paranoid from time to time when it comes to having private conversations around our smartphones.
Maybe an advertisement has popped up that was relevant to something you said a few days ago or you start seeing posts on social media that feel a little too targeted.
Either way, it’s enough to make the best of us spooked and now a shocking leak from a huge advertiser has suggested our worst nightmares could be true.
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One of Facebook’s alleged marketing partners, Cox Media Group (CMG), suffered a leak of one of their pitch decks to potential customers, where it explains how it listens in on users’ phone microphones and uses the information to make targeted advertising choices.
The deck said: “Advertisers can pair this voice-data with behavioral data to target in-market consumers.”
It also listed Facebook, Google and Amazon as clients but didn’t say whether any of them were involved in what they called ‘active listening’.
In a statement, Meta said: “Meta does not use your phone's microphone for ads and we've been public about this for years.
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“We are reaching out to CMG to get them to clarify that their program is not based on Meta data.”
An Amazon spokesperson told 404 Media that its Ads department has “never worked with CMG on this program and has no plans to do so”.
Since the leak, Google has removed CMG from its site under its Partners Program.
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People took to social media to share their reactions to the leak, with one user writing on Reddit: “Oh, the thing everybody knew was going on turned out to actually be happening? I’m just amazed, I tell you.”
Another person shared their own experience after calling their son to advise him on his car problems with the fuse box, adding: “Two hours later he's on his office PC, fires up Edge to start a CITRIX and the first advert on Bing was for Automotive Fuses!”
A third posted: “Targeted ads are already intrusive, but the idea of eavesdropping takes it to another level.”
A fourth person wrote: “Sometimes I feel like this is already a thing.”
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However, don’t panic too much as this prompted a reply from someone else who said: “It's almost certainly not. I work on research related to the kind of voice detection that would be required and simply put it would be nigh on impossible to implement without detection.”