An American company claims to be able to listen to our conversations to send us targeted advertising

With its “active listening” technology, this company, a branch of Cox Media Group, claims to be able to activate the microphone on our phone, television or computer and identify key phrases in our conversations.

There is no evidence yet that phones and computers are listening to us to show us targeted advertising, but one marketing company claims it can do so, potentially fueling the worst conspiracy theories.

The company, which is a division of the Cox Media Group, a media giant in the United States, is currently promoting a technology called “active listening”. It claims to be able to activate the microphone on our phone, television or computer and identify key phrases in our conversations, such as:“we should buy a new minivan” Or “Have you thought about renegotiating our credit?”The goal being, obviously, to send us targeted advertising.

The project was first revealed on their website in November 2023, but the page was quickly deleted. At the time, it didn’t seem very serious. However, other documents were leaked a few days ago in August, including the entire sales pitch. The famous “slides” used by salespeople to approach advertisers. Inside, we find the list of partners: Google, Facebook, Amazon… In short, the essentials of digital advertising. Which is a bit chilling.

All this communication does not mean that the system is already in place, that we are already being spied on. The site 404 Media, which revealed the documents, contacted Google, which immediately removed the company from its partners. Facebook could do the same, because its rules prohibit the use of the microphone for targeted advertising. As for Amazon, it assures that it has never worked with them on this subject. They are perhaps still only at the project stage.

There have already been a lot of studies on this topic. So far, we haven’t really had any proof that the advertising giants are secretly listening to us. We just know that they are very good at creating profiles from all the little traces we leave on the internet. We’re not even sure that it’s technically possible. It would take hours and hours of conversations, all of this, from millions of people simultaneously. And send it all over the internet for analysis. Not only would that be daunting, but it’s also unlikely to be legal.