Technology

59549 readers

3369 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

501

Google & Facebook partner admits it can listen to device microphone to serve ads - Dexerto (www.dexerto.com)

submitted 2 months ago by Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

81 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A media firm that has worked with the likes of Google and Meta has admitted that it can target adverts based on what you said out loud near device microphones.

Media conglomerate Cox Media Group (CMG) has been pitching tech companies on a new targeted advertising tool that uses audio recordings collected from smart home devices, according to a 404 Media investigation. The company is partners with Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Bing.

In a pitch deck presented to Google, Facebook, and others in November 2023, CMG referred to the technology used for monitoring and active listening as “Voice Data.” The firm also mentioned using artificial intelligence to collect data about consumers’ online behavior.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 37 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Critically, "Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft told 404 Media they have no involvement with CMG’s Voice Data tool."

But more importantly, they can't listen on your microphone unless you give them permission. It's not a thing that is technically possible. And like the article says, these days phones even show an indicator to alert you when the microphone is on.

[–] deadcade@lemmy.deadca.de 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

That indicator and the permission system are provided by the OS on your phone. If you trust your OEM not to abuse it, then it works. If the company that made your device is facebook, neither of those features prevent facebook from listening in 24/7.

[–] Vlyn@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Facebook doesn't make phones.

[–] irreticent@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

They did once:

Whatever Happened to the Facebook Phone?

"Facebook’s phone collaboration with HTC was a flop back in 2013."

[–] deadcade@lemmy.deadca.de 2 points 2 months ago

They do make other Android-based devices like the Meta Quest line of VR headsets, and Facebook was just an example, any other OEM fits in that statement as well, like Samsung, Google, OnePlus, etc.

[–] greybeard@lemmy.one 2 points 2 months ago

I also think people discount the power of advertising when they think Facebook or Amazon is listening to them. They don't think that maybe why they were talking about xyz was because they saw an ad for it. Then they saw another ad for it after they talked about it and got confused on cause and effect.

[–] Ming@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah, no need for voice data, they just use search patterns. It’s easy to feel like they’re listening to you and serving you an ad for something you said or talked about, but most likely it’s just something the user searched for.

[–] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 2 months ago

Search patterns yes, but also location data, and it's aggregated over all your friends. So if you go to a restaurant together with a friend who recently searched for some clothes brand, the algorithm will know that and show you ads for that brand. Chances are you talked about his interests when you met, so you incorrectly infer that it was listening to the conversation.