Phones and Smart Devices are Snooping on you via Microphones

Companies are Secretly Listening to User Conversations

There has always been a vague idea and suspicion amongst the users of smartphones and smart devices around the world that these devices secretly listen to their conversations in the background. They have gradually ascertained this over time after realizing that they begun to receive highly targeted advertisements based on the topic on which they talked about as a part of their normal daily life private conversations when in close proximity to these smart devices. It turns out that this commonly held suspicion is not unfounded and as a matter of fact Marketing and Advertising firms, which also have ties and partnerships with major Ad Sense Companies like Google and Meta (and whose products we use and rely on a daily basis), have evolved and use sophisticated techniques which involve using active listening software operating secretly in the background — capturing real time intent data by listening to user conversations using microphones of smartphones and other smart devices, and further combining the voice data of users with their behavioral pattern data to create accurate profile of users to serve them highly personalized ads.

Technologies used for Eavesdropping on Users

The technologies used for monitoring users of smartphones and other smart devices have gotten more and more capable and intrusive, and are powered by highly sophisticated algorithms and Machine Learning — as the Marketing and Advertising firms compete with each other to gather more high quality data on users in large quantities in order to generate highly accurate profiles of them. Companies are actively developing, testing, filing patents and deploying new technologies for targeted advertising and making the ads more engaging for the users by monitoring their behavior [1]. For example, Ford recently submitted a patent application where its cars would eavesdrop on the conversations of the occupants in the car cabin via the inbuilt microphones and serve them targeted advertisements integrated into their cars’ infotainment systems [2]. Although this data is primarily meant to serve relevant and targeted ads to the users, the implications of this data collection and its misuse most definitely extends far beyond just the companies like Google, Meta and Amazon etc. serving targeted ads on first and third party apps and platforms. In the process of displaying ads they share the data with the companies registered with them (data brokers) who can potentially deanonymize the data and share it with other 3rd parties around the globe including but not limited to undesirable actors like hostile Nation States or National Governments and Law enforcement agencies who often purchase this data from these data brokers to undertake predictive policing etc. This might be the reason why the Governments around the globe are not only slow and clumsy in acting against or even banning data collection and targeted advertisements as they have their own vested interests in silently letting these practices to continue or they are sometimes not completely aware about these wrong practices operating stealthily behind the scenes.

The Recent CMG Incident

The most recent culprit caught in this privacy invasive practice of secretly listening to user conservations is Cox Media Group (CMG) (based in the United States), a television and radio news conglomerate, which admitted to investors that it listens to user conversations using its active listening software, according to the report by 404 Media [3]. Last Year in December, 404 Media also revealed that three cofounders of Mindsift, a New-Hampshire based firm, discussed on a podcast they cohost, about their technology which used voice data to serve targeted ads by listening to private conversations of users through the microphones of devices [4].

According to CMG users leave a trail of their online activity and conversations, and their AI powered software collects and analyzes data of users from more than 470 sources. CMG also stated that they have not violated any laws and it is legal for phones and devices to listen to their users and after downloading or updating apps users are often prompted by agreements in fine print in which terms about active listening are often included. In response to this revelation Google removed CMG from its partner program and it said that they don’t support advertisers and advertisements going against the rules and regulations and against their own policies. According to Meta, they are reviewing their partnership with CMG and as per Amazon they never worked with CMG.

Users and the Governments must Act

These startling revelations are a substantial evidence against the current dire situation of online behavioral monitoring and illicit data collection of users by advertising firms through smart devices connected to the internet, and it raises difficult but necessary questions about the downsides of owning these devices or blindly agreeing to the terms of service vis-a-vis the users, the moral dilemma of technology companies who put their profits above the safety and dignity of their users, and puts into a tough spot the governments around the globe in not framing and implementing stricter laws to curb these vile and violative privacy invasive practices which still continue to go on not only unpunished but also largely neglected.

Malloc’s approach is to keep the analysis on the device itself; you can read more about on-device analysis.

References

• [1] patents.google website: System and method for targeted advertising
• [2] Justia Patents Search: IN-VEHICLE ADVERTISEMENT PRESENTATION SYSTEMS AND METHODS
• [3] 404 Media — Here’s the Pitch Deck for ‘Active Listening’ Ad Targeting
• [4] 404 Media — Company Brags About Using Smart Device Microphone Audio to Target Ads on Their Podcast

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