Meta responds to allegations smartphone microphones listen to conversations to serve ads

Most people have encountered the strange coincide of having a conversation about a topic and then picking up their phone, opening a social media app and seeing an advertisement for that very thing that was just being discussed.

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Some people, including myself, have reported this coincidence happening multiple times, leading to the assumption tech giants have access to the microphone in a smartphone and listen to people's conversations to better hone targeted advertisements. Despite this anecdotal evidence, social media giants such as Meta's Facebook have denied using any listening software for advertising purposes, but a recent report by 404 Media revealed through leaked pitch decks the technology exists.

The 404 Media report cited a leaked pitch deck about "Active Listening" software that accessed a smartphone microphone to monitor conversations and gather data. That data was then combined with behavioral data for more precise targeted advertising per user. The leaked pitch deck came from Cox Media Group (CMG), which cites Amazon, Google, and Facebook as partners. Following the release of the report, Google has since dropped CMG from its Partner Program list.

While the pitch deck states Amazon, Google, and Facebook are partners with CMG, it doesn't specify if they are clients of this "Active Listening" software, which uses a form of artificial intelligence to "capture real-time intent data by listening to our conversations".

Meta has since responded to the leaked pitch deck from Cox Media Group (CMG), which has associated Facebook with invasive advertising technology, by denying any involvement with CMG's purported "Active Listening" technology and any other listening technology used to better serve targeted advertisements on its social media platforms.

Meta has informed me of Facebook's previous statements that date back to 2016 about its social media platform using smartphone microphone's to collect advertising data. Meta says its statements back then still ring true today, and those can be read here.

Additionally, Meta pointed out that when creating a customer list for advertising purposes on its platform, advertisers need to determine if they have the necessary rights to use certain data based on their own review of laws, regulations, and industry guidelines. Moreover, Meta states it accepts fifteen "identifiers" for its targeted advertising - email, phone, mobile operating system (Android / iOS), Facebook user ID, Facebook Page ID, last names, city, state/province, country, date of birth, year of birth, age, ZIP/postal code, and gender.

"You represent and warrant, without limiting anything in these Terms, that you have all necessary rights and permissions and a lawful basis to disclose and use the Hashed Data in compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, and industry guidelines," states Meta in its Customer List Custom Audiences Terms

Furthermore Meta has provided a statement to me that further rebutes any allegations of the social media company using smartphone microphones for targeted advertising. The Mark Zuckerberg-run company wrote the following -

"Meta does not use your phone's microphone for ads and we've been public about this for years. We are reaching out to CMG to get them to clarify that their program is not based on Meta data," wrote a Meta spokesperson