Here’s the Pitch Deck for CMG’s ‘Active Listening’ Ad Targeting ⇥ 404media.co

Joseph Cox, 404 Media:

Media giant Cox Media Group (CMG) says it can target adverts based on what potential customers said out loud near device microphones, and explicitly points to Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Bing as CMG partners, according to a CMG presentation obtained by 404 Media.

The deck says things like “smart devices capture real-time intent data by listening to our conversations” which seems like an obviously privacy-hostile invention on its face. But I continue to doubt any of this voice collection is actually happening, no matter how many buzzwords Cox Media Group throws in a PowerPoint presentation, when there is a far simpler explanation: they are lying. It already feels like behavioural advertising is targeting every word we say, so why not lean into that? Unscrupulous marketers love that kind of stuff. Feed them what they want.

If anyone from Cox Media Group would like to prove to me this is happening as described, give me a demo. I would love to see your creepy technology.