Facebook Partner Confirms Phone Microphones Spy On Users
Many people have long suspected that our smart devices might be spying on us. People have often noticed the highly suspicious timing of how they would be mentioning something specific in a conversation with someone else, then upon checking their phone, they would start seeing advertisements for products related to what they mentioned. However, one of the partners who claims to work with Facebook (Cox Media Group) has now confirmed that they do indeed send users targeted ads based on conversations they hear.
It’s A Slippery Slope
Cox Media Group admits to using what they call “active listening software” to find data about potential customers and send them ads accordingly. The company claims Facebook, Amazon, and Google as being among their clients, saying that all three utilize active listening software to tailor ads to their users.
The revelation is something that many would definitely find unnerving to have confirmed. A natural concern is that if companies are using such technology to create ads, who else might be able to use such technology for more nefarious purposes? Facebook might not be interested in doing anything illegal with such information, but if criminals can access such technology as well, could it be used to steal sensitive information like social security numbers?
It All Comes Down To Terms Of Service
Of note is that while Cox Media Group claims they service companies like Facebook and Google, not all of their supposed clients corroborate this. A spokesperson for Amazon vehemently denied any association, saying the company “has never worked with CMG on this program and has no plans to do so.” However, since there is no way for the public to check such details, some might wonder if this is merely Amazon trying to avoid any bad publicity by denying involvement.
Meanwhile, many smart device users might be wondering if they can take legal action against companies like Cox Media Group for listening in on them without their consent. However, the company says users do indeed agree to this service when scrolling through those gigantic user agreements that come with downloading apps like Facebook.
The Importance Of Reading The TOS
In a blog post from last year, the Cox Media Group site said, “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.” And the agreements on services like Facebook are typically simple agree or disagree selections, with no option to opt out of specific parts of the agreement that you may not want.
Living In A Seemingly Post-Privacy Era
The difficult thing for consumers is that there currently is not an easy way to avoid being spied on in this way by companies. Smartphones have become essential to many people’s lives. Google is the primary search engine most people use. A lot of employees need to use social media like Facebook for things like marketing responsibilities at their jobs.
By using all of these things, it exposes users to this technology that most would consider highly intrusive.
The All-Hearing Microphone
It might be in the future that legal policies will protect users against such methods of acquiring information. But for the time being, it appears users have no choice but to accept that their microphones on their phones could have someone listening at any time. If the claims of Cox Media Group are true, we know that information obtained in this way is used by groups like Facebook. But who else might be listening?
Source: 404 Media
