An advertiser who claims to be able to use ad analytics tools pays $880K

In November 2023, we reported questionable claims produced by advertising company Cox Media Group (CMG) Local Solutions. The company announced a service called Active Listening on website page which said, “It’s true. Your devices are listening to you” and said it could use “voice recognition” to help advertisers target third-party ads.

Naturally, panic started. 404 Mediawhich first saw the website, for example, wrote that the idea of ​​mobile phones listening to people to sell products “could be real.”

Photo taken in 2023 from a website that CMG has removed.

An advertising company idea that uses AI to “identify relevant conversations via smartphones, smart TVs, and other devices” in real time—according to a CMG post that has since been deleted from November 2023 (still visible via The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine) – has raised the alarm.

But it was clear that CMG’s claims could not be true. The company did not explain how it did it away extract sufficient computing and network power from users’ materials secretly recording and transmitting audio recordings in “real time” or gaining access to people’s homes beyond the reach of law enforcement without a warrant.

This week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that CMG will pay $880,000 to settle the FTC’s. allegations that the “fake” CMG said it “offers an AI-powered service that will target targeted ads based on conversations captured on consumers’ smart devices and that consumers have chosen to target them.”

The money will go to affected customers, the FTC said.

The FTC announcement states:

According to the (FTC-filed) complaint, the service didn’t listen to consumers’ conversations or use any words — and the service didn’t place ads in the places customers wanted. Instead, the services the companies offered were reselling – to the important list – email lists taken from other vendors.

After working with CMG, two Wisconsin-based sales companies 1010 Digital Works LLC is New Hampshire-based Concept of the company MindSift LLCeach will pay a fixed $25,000.

In its now-deleted blog post from 2023, CMG said Active Listening relied on an unnamed CMG partner that had “extensive access to the microphone on the device.” But when we started listening to Active Listening, a company spokesperson admitted to Ars that CMG “did not listen to any conversations or have access to anything beyond an aggregated, anonymous, and well-encrypted third party that could be used to serve ads.”