--- title: "In Leak, Facebook Partner Brags About Listening to Your Phone’s Microphone to Serve Ads for Stuff You Mention" description: "One of Facebook's alleged marketing partners explained how it listens to users' smartphone microphones and advertises to them accordingly." date: "2024-09-01" modified: "2024-09-01" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-partner-phones-listening-microphone" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "advertising" - "facebook" - "privacy" - "the digest" --- # In Leak, Facebook Partner Brags About Listening to Your Phone’s Microphone to Serve Ads for Stuff You Mention ![One of Facebook's alleged marketing partners explained how it listens to users' smartphone microphones and advertises to them accordingly.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Actively Creepy 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 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, though it didn't specify whether they were involved in the "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]()." A Meta spokesperson also pushed back in a statement, saying that CMG was a general partner, not a partner in the program advertised in the deck. "Meta does not use your phone's microphone for ads and we've been public about this for years," the statement read. "We are reaching out to CMG to get them to clarify that their program is not based on Meta data." And an Amazon spokesperson told *404* that its Ads arm "has never worked with CMG on this program and has no plans to do so." ## Ill-Fated Admissions This latest leak marks the third time in a year that *404* has reported on CMG's shady voice targeting service. Last December, the independent news site not only put a marketing company on blast for [boasting about such creepy tech]() on its podcast, and also [revealed the existence]() of CMG's Active Listening feature. Together with this latest update to the CMG saga, these stories bolster [longstanding suspicions]() about advertisers using our phones to listen to us. "We know what you're thinking. Is this even legal?" a [since-deleted Cox blog post]() from November 2023 noted. "It is legal for phones and devices to listen to you. When a new app download or update prompts consumers with a multi-page term of use agreement somewhere in the fine print, Active Listening is often included." Beyond taking a big game, CMG did not cop to how it acquires its alleged voice data, instead saying only that it can identify users who are "ready-to-buy" and create targeted ad lists based on their interests. For this service, the media group that [specializes in hyperlocal news]() charges $100 per day to target folks in a 10-mile radius, and $200 per day to target those in a 20-mile radius. CMG didn't respond to questions about the story. Given that the company boasted about it on its public — and [still archived]() — website before anyone began paying attention, however, it seems like it would be pretty hard at this juncture to deny that it was charging for its eavesdropping services. *Updated with a denial from Meta that it's involved in the Active Listening program.* **More on privacy:** [*Hackers May Have Leaked Every American Social Security Information*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()