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.
Apple and Google turn a blind eye to large apps. App stores need Facebook more than Facebook needs the app stores.
That said, they need some pretty complicated bypasses to not show a microphone icon every time they try to listen in.
I believe these apps will listen in on calls and maybe voice messages, but they’re not enabling the microphone 24/7.
I know people at both companies adjacent to compliance groups. They certainly do NOT turn a blind eye. They know if they mess it up once then they’re BlackBerry.