Cox Media has been fined after it bragged about spying on users on their phones

An exceptionally bizarre controversy has come back to haunt Cox Media and two marketing companies, which claimed they were secretly listening to users via phones and smart devices – despite little evidence they could do so. The Federal Trade Commission announced Thursday that Cox, MindSift and 1010 Digital Works will pay a total of $930,000 to settle allegations that they were actually lying about spying on people to target ads.

As he narrated it I was upset Two years ago, Cox publicly boasted of a system called Voice Data in 2023, telling potential digital marketing clients that they could ensure that “every casual conversation between two consumers becomes a tool for you to target, retarget, and retain customers.” I compared the technology to an episode of Black mirror He described it as a real-life version of the persistent and largely unsubstantiated rumor that social media companies routinely listen to users through phone microphones. Cox backtracked and denied that he was listening to the conversations, however 404 media I have posted several internal presentations that make the same very miserable claim.

At the time, there was significant skepticism that this actually happened, and FTC complaints backed this up. “This service did not, in fact, listen to consumers’ conversations or use audio data at all — nor did it place ads precisely in the locations where customers wanted them,” its press release said. “Instead, the service the companies provided was to resell email lists – at a premium – that had been obtained from other data brokers.” The agency also says the companies lied about consumers signing up for the system — even if they did He could They are allegedly spying on people, and are still breaking the law.