Marketer that claimed it could tap devices for ad targeting will pay $880K settlement

Key points

• In November 2023, we reported on dubious claims made by marketing firm Cox Media Group (CMG) Local Solutions.
• The company a service called Active Listening on a website that said, “It’s true.
• Your devices are listening to you” and claimed it could use “voice data” to help target to specific people.
• Naturally, panic ensued.
• 404 Media, which initially spotted the website, for instance, wrote that the idea of smartphones listening to people to sell products “may finally be a reality.” The idea of a marketing firm using AI to “detect relevant conversations via smartphones, smart TVs, and other devices” in real time—according to a since-deleted CMG blog post from November 2023 (still viewable via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine)—has raised alarms.