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On one hand I know that secretly turning on mics w/o user consent is not possible. On the flip side more than once my wife and I have talked about a random product we've never researched before and seen ads on our phones mere minutes later.

ftc.govFTC to Require Cox Media Group, Two Other Firms to Pay Nearly $1 Million to Settle Charges They Deceived Customers About “Active Listening” AI-Powered Marketing ServiceThe Federal Trade Commission will require Cox Media Group (CMG) and two smaller marketing firms to pay a total of $930,000 to settle allegations they deceived customers by falsely claiming to offer

Here's the FTC press release: www.ftc.gov/news-events/... "this service did not, in fact, listen in on consumers’ conversations or use voice data at all [...] Instead, the service the companies provided consisted of reselling—at a significant markup—email lists obtained from other data brokers."

404media.coMarketing Company Claims That It Actually Is Listening to Your Phone and Smart Speakers to Target Ads“What would it mean for your business if you could target potential clients who are actively discussing their need for your services in their day-to-day conversations? No, it's not a Black Mirror epis...

cc @404media.co you wrote about this one as well www.404media.co/cmg-cox-medi...

Markus 🤓✨

@markus.maragu.dev

Let's see if @404media.co edit the article, publish a retraction or followup, or just silently let it slide. I think how they react or not will say a lot about them as a publication.

more.bsky.social

@more.bsky.social

Retract what? 404 doesn’t say anything other than that a company advertises they can listen in.

Tiltmonger

@tiltmonger.bsky.social

I deleted Facebook about seven years ago after it became apparent they were listening to me to serve me ads. I was talking to my wife in the kitchen and said something about buying something I had not spoken about, googled, or considered until that moment in years, and then next webpage it was on.

Shane Carrow

@shanecarrow.bsky.social

I’m fairly confident any targeted ad a person swears was caused by an eavesdropping mic can be explained away by other data gathering points they just haven’t thought of

mcsweeneys.netCalm Down—Your Phone Isn’t Listening to Your Conversations. It’s Just Tracking Everything You Type, Every App You Use, Every Website You Visit, and Everywhere You Go in the Physical World“The truth is simpler, and not at all alarming: your phone only seems to be listening to you because it’s collecting data about every word you type, every we...

I like how this McSweeney's headline puts it www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/cal...

Shane Carrow

@shanecarrow.bsky.social

When I was engagement ring shopping I did *all* research, even Google Maps queries, on my work phone to prevent any ads showing up on my personal phone in case my gf saw it; I still got targeted ads on my personal phone and when I thought about it for a bit it was obvious why!