Is it true that our phones are listening to us?

Are they spying on us? This question is often asked by users of smartphones and other Internet-connected devices. Many people desperately don’t believe this, while others, on the contrary, have no doubt that this is so, pulling their tin foil hat deeper. But jokes are aside, and a certain amount of information is definitely being collected, especially by companies that make money from advertising. These include Yandex, Google and even Facebook, which is banned in Russia. But some time ago information appeared that we simply cannot help but talk about.

Why does advertising guess what I need?

The source of information this time was one of the partners of Facebook (a social network banned in the Russian Federation). In a presentation to potential clients, he mentioned that listens to the microphones of users' smartphones and uses the information received to display advertising.

This information appeared in the publication 404 Media. According to it, media giant Cox Media Group (CMG), specializing in television and radio news, claims that its software called “Active Listening” uses artificial intelligence to “gather intent data in real time by listening to users’ conversations.”

The presentation states that advertisers can match this voice data with behavioral data to target consumersready to buy something. Why this is needed is already clear – in order to collect data on people’s interests, at the right time offer them products that will definitely interest them, increase sales to their partners and receive a commission from this.

How data is collected online

Not only this is interesting, but also which companies collect the data. Most likely, these are all giants that are somehow connected with the sale of advertising, but some specific names appear in the presentation. Among them, CMG named Google, Amazon and Facebook (whose activities are prohibited in Russia). Although the company does not specify whether the mentioned market players were included in the “Active Listening” service.

After 404 Media reached out to the tech giant for comment on the partnership, Google has removed the media group from its “Affiliate Program” on the website. Regardless of whether the information about data collection is true or not, the very fact of deletion is quite logical, because the release of such, to put it mildly, piquant information will be received by few people with an approving smile and a friendly pat on the shoulder.

Naturally, questions were also asked of Meta (the company’s activities are prohibited in the Russian Federation). She, too, denied the allegations, saying CMG was a general partner and not a partner in the program advertised in the presentation. Company representatives also added that it does not use user microphones for advertisingemphasizing that he has been publicly stating this for many years. Representatives of the American company also promised to look into the situation and contact CMG for clarification regarding the links to it.

Amazon behaved most interestingly, saying that its advertising division has never worked with CMG on the “Active Listening” program and has no plans to do so.

This latest leak marks the third time this year that 404 Media has reported on CMG's questionable voice targeting service. In December 2023, an independent news site not only exposed a marketing company for boasting about such creepy technology on its podcast, but also exposed the existence of the Active Listening function from CMG.

Should you read the agreement when activating a new phone?

Experts note that when users are presented with a multi-page terms of use agreement that no one readssomewhere in the small print it often turns on Active Listening or something like that. That is, we ourselves give permission to collect information when we accept the terms of a particular agreement, which we never read. And only rare noisy cases, like what happened a few years ago with WhatsApp, come to the surface, and the rest simply goes unnoticed.

Interestingly, CMG did not say exactly how it obtains purported voice data, saying only that it can identify users who are “ready to buy” and create targeted advertising lists based on their interests. For this service, the news media group charges $100 per day to target people within a 10-mile radius and $200 per day to target people within a 20-mile radius.

Are we being followed online?

Considering that the company boasted about it on its website before anyone starts paying attention, it seems that at this stage it would be quite difficult for her to deny that she was charging for her eavesdropping services. A there is no doubt that the surveillance itself is being carried out at all. Nobody likes this particular word, but it is difficult to call such a phenomenon otherwise.

Of course, few people will want to admit to such a crude collection of information, but the more data this or that advertising operator receives, the more money he will earn. The issue is especially acute when using operating systems from companies such as Google, because a huge part of its activities is based on advertising and its correct communication to potential buyers. On the one hand, targeted advertising is better than random advertising, but the fact that artificial intelligence gets its sticky little hands into our personal data and analyzes it is very frustrating.

The problem is that we live in a time when information becomes more and more valuableand it is becoming more and more difficult to extract it based on indirect signs. All that remains is direct tracking, from which it will become increasingly difficult to hide. It’s also very convenient when there are companies that collect data themselves, and the industry giants have nothing to do with it.

How to find out if you are being followed online?

Finding out whether someone is actually following you online is quite difficult, but there is one simple indirect sign. It is its manifestation that will allow you to understand that you left your data somewhere and someone used it.

Everything is simple and banal – if you wrote something about a product somewhere, and after a while this is exactly what you were offered in recommendationsit means someone found out about your interest in this product. Of course, these are rather rough recommendations, but this is often what happens.

One more an example would be search engines. Everything is open here. All you have to do is start Googling, how to build a computer yourselfand you can start setting up a net to catch it from the side windows and display advertising components. This is another proof that our online behavior was, is, and will be controlled. And even special means will become less and less effective.