Have you ever heard someone worried that your phone and all the smart things around your house are always listening? Most people dismiss this idea, the companies that make the things assure us this isn't the case, but it looks true after all.
404 Media discovered that Cox Media Group was offering targeted advertising using the things you say out loud near gadgets with a microphone and an internet connection., which it called "Active Listening" ad targeting. Furthermore, documentation obtained by 404 lists Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Bing as CMG partners.
This is a nightmare scenario that a lot of us are worried about, even though we're constantly being told it can't happen. CMG never said how it could listen in when devices weren't supposed to be active, but unless the company was outright lying to customers, they have figured it out using particular devices or software trickery.
I contacted Google, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft with questions because we all deserve some answers. Meta and Microsoft have not yet responded, but when I hear back from them, I will include their responses in this post. In the meantime, a years-old blog post from Meta specifically states how the company does not use your phone's mic to target ads.
A Google statement reads, "All advertisers must comply with all applicable laws and regulations as well as our Google Ads policies, and when we identify ads or advertisers that violate these policies, we will take appropriate action." Since this information became public, the company has removed CMG from its partner program.
Amazon told me in a statement that "Amazon Ads has never worked with CMG on this program and has no plans to do so." A plainly worded statement that I like to hear because there are millions of Alexa-enabled devices in homes across North America.
Technically, being able to listen in when you shouldn't is a tough nut to crack, especially with Echo devices and Android phones. All devices using Alexa and Google Assistant/Gemini have a microphone that's always active but programmed to initiate any sort of connection only when a specific keyword is identified.
You can see what Alexa has "heard" by looking in Settings > Privacy > Review Voice History in the Alexa app. You can do the same for Google Assistant devices through the Settings > Privacy > Home Activity section of the Google Home app.
Android devices and Amazon Echo devices offer an additional safeguard: a visual indication when the microphone is active. On an Echo device, a blue LED turns on when Alexa is talking to the internet. Your Android devices have a status bar icon that shows a microphone whenever an app or service — even Google's own services — has access to the mic. This was part of Android 12 and is available to every phone manufacturer.
These are very valuable tools that you need to start paying attention to. I've no doubt some very smart people work for CMG, but there are plenty of other companies with super-smart employees — employees who are smart enough to find ways to defeat the built-in protections to keep your private conversations private. Apparently, you can be intelligent without being ethical.
I don't know what this means for the smart home. I like being able to yell and have the thermostat adjusted or the kitchen light come on. I don't like knowing that someone may hear me talking to my wife about car tires and then show me ads for car tires. I dislike it so much I'm willing to unplug my Nest Hub and put it in the closet.
The blog post for Active Listening was taken down shortly after the report, and in a statement obtained by Business Insider, CMG stated that its businesses "do 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."
Still, I don't think we've heard the last of this situation, and I know people at the companies who build our devices and work hard to prevent this can't be happy about it. In the meantime, know that the idea of someone always listening might just be real.
