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Google & Facebook partner admits it can listen to device microphone to serve ads - Dexerto (www.dexerto.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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A media firm that has worked with the likes of Google and Meta has admitted that it can target adverts based on what you said out loud near device microphones.

Media conglomerate Cox Media Group (CMG) has been pitching tech companies on a new targeted advertising tool that uses audio recordings collected from smart home devices, according to a 404 Media investigation. The company is partners with Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Bing.

In a pitch deck presented to Google, Facebook, and others in November 2023, CMG referred to the technology used for monitoring and active listening as “Voice Data.” The firm also mentioned using artificial intelligence to collect data about consumers’ online behavior.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Who could possibly imagine Google and Facebook doing something unethical, then lying about it?

[–] [email protected] -3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Ignorant lemmings who don't understand there are billions and billions of dollars going into Sec ops research who would give both their nuts, ovaries, or whatever to make this discovery and can't be bothered to understand how the hardware chip powering the on word works.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

If a device can start listening when you say, "Hey Siri," it can also start listening when you say other words.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Let me ask, do you understand how the wake word chip works? Or are you just imagining an absurd edge case where a researcher some how gaps the bridged chips while having the device in person?

What do you believe is a viable attack vector that somehow nobody knows about?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Have you read the source code for the programming for those chips? Do you know exactly how they work?

Voice recognition is highly subjective, and some of you actually trust billionaire's companies enough to take their word that their devices will only listen for certain special words? Ridiculous.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

So far, nobody has proven that any major phone apps are constantly listening and sending that data somewhere. That would be huge news if it ever happened.

For voice assistants, they're tuned to listen specifically for wake words like "hey Siri".