Excerpt:
"For years people have suspected that their smartphones, laptops, and home assistants were secretly eavesdropping on their private conversations. Now, a leaked pitch deck seems to confirm that our devices are, in fact, listening—and the implications are far-reaching.


Leaked slide via 404 Media
A leaked pitch deck presentation from Cox Media Group (CMG) - major player in the digital advertising space, appears to detail how its "Active-Listening" software uses artificial intelligence to capture and analyze "real-time intent data" from users' conversations. The presentation, obtained by 404 Media, lays out how CMG's software could listen to everything spoken near a microphone-equipped device—whether it's a phone, laptop, or home assistant like Amazon's Alexa, the Daily Mail reports.

Active-Listening: A Six-Step Process to Harvest Voice Data
The pitch deck outlines a six-step process for CMG's Active-Listening software, which turns seemingly benign conversations into targeted advertising gold. The first slide describes how the software listens to your conversations and extracts real-time intent data, which advertisers can then pair with behavioral data to target "in-market consumers." In simple terms, it means that if you mention a product or service in a conversation, advertisers can target you with ads for that very item.



For instance, if you're talking about Toyota cars with a friend, you might soon find yourself inundated with ads for Toyota’s latest models. This alleged use of private conversations for ad targeting represents a significant breach of what most people consider to be their personal privacy.

The slideshow goes further, showcasing tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Amazon as clients of CMG, suggesting they may use this controversial technology."