Have you ever had the uncanny experience of talking about a product or service, only to see ads for that exact thing pop up on your phone or computer shortly after? You’re not alone. Many people have long suspected that our devices are somehow listening to us in order to serve hyper-targeted advertising. But is this really happening? Recent revelations suggest the answer may be yes.
Cox Media Group and ‘Active Listening’
According to archived web pages and a leaked pitch deck from Cox Media Group, the company has been pitching an advertising service called “Active Listening.” This service apparently uses voice data captured by smart devices to target ads to people who mention relevant keywords in their everyday conversations.
The leaked materials state that “with Active Listening, CMG can now use voice data to target your advertising to the EXACT people you are looking for.” Examples are given of how a business could target customers talking about topics like expiring car leases, retirement planning, or home maintenance issues.
While Cox Media Group claims “it is totally legal for phones and devices to listen to you” because “consumers usually give consent when accepting terms and conditions,” many would argue this type of indiscriminate eavesdropping on private conversations crosses an ethical line. The fact that the Active Listening web page was quickly taken down after receiving public attention suggests the company knows the practice would be controversial if widely known.
Sophisticated Advertising in the Big Data Era
Even without voice data, advertising has become incredibly sophisticated in the era of Big Data. The script gives the example of how Target was able to predict a teen girl’s pregnancy based on changes in her shopping habits, and began targeting her with maternity-related ads before her own father knew she was expecting.
By analyzing patterns in consumers’ purchase history, browsing behavior, demographics and more, advertisers can build detailed profiles to predict our interests and determine the optimal time to target us with specific products. Add in voice data from smart speakers, phones and TVs that can now apparently monitor our conversations 24/7, and the precision becomes downright uncanny.
The Ethics of Hyper-Targeted Advertising
Proponents argue that such personalized advertising ultimately benefits consumers by informing them of relevant products and services right when they need them. But at what cost?
There’s something deeply unsettling about the idea that intimate conversations in the privacy of our homes are being mined for profit-driven advertising, often without our full knowledge or explicit consent. It’s a level of intrusion that would have been unimaginable just a generation ago.
As the Target example shows, companies are well aware of the “creepy” factor and go to great lengths to disguise their hyper-targeting, such as deliberately mixing in irrelevant ads so it doesn’t look like they “know too much.” But this just underscores the disturbing implications. If advertisers have to resort to subterfuge to hide how much they know about us, perhaps they’ve overstepped a boundary.
Ultimately, the rise of “active listening” and other advanced targeting techniques points to the need for a robust public debate about where we draw the line between personalization and privacy violation in advertising. In an era where we are increasingly surrounded by connected devices capable of monitoring the minutiae of our lives, strong digital privacy protections and true informed consent are more critical than ever. Until then, we’ll have to assume those uncannily timed ads are no coincidence.
