Could Your Smartphone Be Listening to You for Targeted Ads?

For years, many smartphone users have suspected that their devices might be eavesdropping on their conversations in order to serve them more personalized advertisements. Recent revelations, however, suggest that these concerns might have a basis in reality and not just be urban legend. Is it time to do something about it? Here’s what we know.

The Pitch Deck and “Active Listening” Explained
A leaked pitch deck from CMG Local Solutions—a subsidiary of Cox Media Group (CMG)—details a method dubbed “active listening.” According to the deck, the technology uses artificial intelligence to combine voice data with online behavioural data. In simple terms, the system is designed to analyze ambient conversations to identify when someone might be “ready to buy” and then generate highly targeted advertising lists. One slide in the deck states:
“Advertisers can pair this voice-data with behavioural data to target in-market consumers.”
This claim has raised eyebrows because it implies that your casual spoken words could be transforming into a data point for marketers.

CMG’s Response and Industry Reaction
CMG has countered these claims by insisting that its business practices have never involved direct eavesdropping on conversations. Instead, the company asserts that it has only used third-party aggregated, anonymized, and fully encrypted datasets for ad placement. In fact, the pitch deck itself was described by CMG as “outdated materials for a product that CMG Local Solutions no longer sells.”
​
At the same time, several major tech companies—namely Google, Meta (the parent company of Facebook), and Amazon—were listed as clients in the pitch deck. Yet, all three have publicly denied any involvement with an active listening program. Google even removed CMG from its Partners Program, and both Meta and Amazon have stated that they do not work with such technology.
​
The Privacy and Permission Puzzle
Even if the technology were capable of “active listening,” there are significant technical and ethical considerations:
Permission Requirements:
For any app to capture voice data, it must explicitly request microphone access when installed or updated. This is a safeguard built into both Android and iOS operating systems.
User Awareness:
Modern mobile devices provide visual indicators (such as the orange or green dots on iOS) whenever the microphone or camera is in use. This feature is intended to alert users that a device is actively accessing these resources.
Luis Corrons, a researcher and Norton Security Evangelist, explains:
“For an app to perform active listening, it would need microphone access permissions. These permissions are explicitly requested—and users can monitor them with visual cues provided by the operating system.”
Reviewing app permissions regularly is a recommended best practice to ensure that no application has unnecessary access to your microphone.
​
nypost.com