Meta responds to allegations that smartphone microphones are listening to conversations to display ads

Most people have experienced the strange coincidence of being in a conversation about something, reaching for their phone, opening a social media app, and seeing an ad for the exact thing they were talking about.

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Some people, myself included, have reported that this coincidence has happened repeatedly, leading to the assumption that the tech giants have access to smartphone microphones and are listening to people’s conversations to better fine-tune targeted advertising. Despite this anecdotal evidence, social media giants like Facebook’s Meta have denied using any eavesdropping software for advertising purposes, but recent 404 Media report revealed through leaks about the existence of this technology.

The 404 Media report cited leaked promotional material about “Active listening“software that accessed a smartphone’s microphone to monitor conversations and collect data. This data was then combined with behavioral data to more accurately target advertising to the user. The leaked pitch deck came from Cox Media Group (CMG), which lists Amazon, Google, and Facebook as partners. After the report was published, Google removed CMG from its list of partner programs.

While the presentation listed Amazon, Google and Facebook as CMG partners, it did not specify whether they were clients of the company.Active listening“software that uses a form of artificial intelligence to”capture real-time intent data by listening to our conversations“.

Meta later responded to leaked promotional material from Cox Media Group (CMG) that linked Facebook to the invasive advertising technology by denying any connection to the alleged “Active listening“technologies and any other listening technologies used to better deliver targeted advertising on social media platforms.

Meta informed me of Facebook’s previous statements dating back to 2016 regarding the social media platform using smartphone microphones to collect advertising data. Meta says its statements from that time are still relevant and can be read Here.

In addition, Meta has indicated that when creating a customer list for advertising purposes on its platform, advertisers must determine whether they have the necessary rights to use the specific data based on its own review of laws, regulations, and industry guidelines. Meta further states that it accepts fifteen “identifiers“for advertising targeting purposes – email address, phone number, mobile device operating system (Android/iOS), Facebook user ID, Facebook page ID, names, city, state/province, country, date of birth, year of birth, age, postal code, and gender.

“You represent and warrant, without limiting any provision of these Terms, that you have all necessary rights, authority and legal basis to disclose and use the hashed data in compliance with all applicable laws, regulations and industry guidelines,“Meta states in his Customer List Custom Audiences Terms

In addition, Meta provided me with a statement that further refutes any allegations about the social media company using smartphone microphones for targeted advertising. The company, run by Mark Zuckerberg, wrote the following:

“Meta does not use the phone’s microphone for advertising and we have been publicly aware of this for years. We are asking CMG to clarify that their program does not rely on Meta data,“wrote the Meta spokesman