Facebook Allegedly Said to Have Eavesdropped by Using Users' Microphones

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Have you ever suddenly come across an ad related to something you were just talking about? All these times, we were never sure if our phones were listening to us, until one of Facebook's advertising partners confirmed the existence of 'Active Listening'.

According to a report from 404 Media, “Active Listening” is a software that uses artificial intelligence models to “capture real-time intent data by listening to our conversations”. The leaked document quotes a pitch deck from Cox Media Group (CMG), allegedly one of Facebook's marketing partners.

“Advertisers can pair this voice data with behavioral data to target consumers in the marketplace,” the pitch deck said.

Apart from Facebook, Google and Amazon have also allegedly adopted the same practice and are clients of CMG's Active Listening service. After being contacted by 404 Media for comment on the partnership, Google reportedly removed CMG from its “Partners Program”.

Meta denies the use of 'Active Listening' technology

A Meta spokesperson also informed that CMG is a general partner, not a partner in the program advertised in the deck. “Meta does not use your phone's microphone for advertising and we have been publicly announcing this for years,” he said as quoted by Gizmochina. “We reached out to CMG to ask them to clarify that their program is not based on Meta data.”

An Amazon spokesperson also noted that they have never worked with CMG for advertising and have no plans to do so in the future.

However, this is not the first time 404 Media has reported CMG's suspicious voice targeting service. In December last year, 404 Media not only slammed the marketing company for boasting the creepy technology on its podcast, but also talked about the Active Listening function.

“We know what you're thinking. Is this legal?” wrote a blog post from CMG in November last year. “Any phone and device can listen to you. When a new app download or update asks consumers to include a multiple page terms of use agreement somewhere in the fine print, Active Listening is often included.”

CMG revealed that it can identify users who are “ready to buy” and create targeted ad lists based on their interests.

MOH. HATTA MUARABAGJA

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