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.
they’ve claimed the same last year in December, and it turned out they were overselling their capabilities
Some people really will believe anything, as long as you’re trash talking big tech. And this platform is particularly bad.
Like hell are they able to just tap into your microphone like that, both Android and I OS have that locked down.
Some people really will believe anything, as long as you’re trash talking big tech. And this platform is particularly bad.
Just say something like you should be paying for YouTube (via ads or premium) and brace for the swarm.
I’d pay if they actually offered a better service. But they don’t, so I use alternatives that do:
- Grayjay - sub to more than just YouTube, downloading works as expected, etc
- Nebula - smaller selection of content, but downloading works as expected
Both of those offer a better experience than YouTube premium (in terms of app features). If YouTube offered a higher quality experience, I’d be more interested in paying for it.
So, I instead just donate to/buy merch from creators I really appreciate and avoid the YouTube app. The only reason Google is involved is because of the network effect, not because they actually provide a good service, so I don’t feel bad cheating them out of their ad revenue.
I bailed on Netflix and Disney+, but I refuse to torrent, so I rip DVDs and Blurays to my Jellyfin instance.
You do understand we’re taking the piss out of people like you, right?
For what?
Been there, done that. They start yelling about Plex servers and torrents.
I don’t want to turn downloading shows into a hobby in it’s own right.
You should read the 404 piece, it’s considerably less sensational and doesn’t flat lie in the headline. I hate Big Tech too, but this is very bad framing.
Voice data doesn’t have to mean live microphone. Voice data could be when you use Siri or Google and talk to your phone to search things.
It is worth noting that most phones, whether Android or iOS, now notify users when a service accesses the microphone. On Android, a green light appears in the upper right, while on iPhone, it’s an orange light.
I don’t know about Apple but Google used to make a little tone that let you know that it was listening to you. It doesn’t do that anymore. Now it just shows a little green light which, if you’re not looking directly at the phone you won’t see.
And it was pretty frequent when Google’s voice Assistant would randomly activate and I’d hear that little tone and I would have to turn it off so it wouldn’t sit there listening to my conversation. But now you don’t have that option, now if you miss that little light everything you say is recorded.
Fuck these services. I have permanently disabled both my phones 's Google Assistant and the Nest speaker I bought. Yes, it’s less convenient. But the fact of the matter is that these companies aren’t interested in making a service that is useful to you they just want to collect data on everything you do so they can sell it. And to be clear, I was fine with them collecting data on stuff that I actively participated in, it’s the price I was willing to pay. But for them to pull this shady ass shit of removing the audible notification is just garbage.
For Google’s devices, the sound is still available as an accessibility feature. It’s now off by default, which I agree it should not be. But you can turn it back on, I have it on all my devices, they all still make that sound after recognizing "hey Google " either as a true or false positive.
It was disabled even in accessibility mode in the last major update on my last phone (Pixel 8) I haven’t tried it on the Pixel 9 but I doubt I’ll have better luck.
It baffles me that people actually take these assertions seriously, especially after having used different software that uses voice input, like Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa or whatever. Those things make some serious mistakes even under ideal circumstances, and you want me to believe that they can accurately overhear things in non-ideal circumstances? I highly doubt it.
Regardless, you can use an ad blocker to make this a moot point - I’ve never experienced anything even close to this, because I never get ads.
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This is a false anecdote and outdated too.
How so?
When it comes to Android, this should be standard. You can block all the bullshit with a few clicks, some apps don’t need internet access at all (such as the fucking keyboard, Google).
admits isnt the right word, they are exaggerating their capabilities for the sake of marketing themselves to other marketing people who have no idea how device permissions or internet packets work.
“We always knew it”… No you just didnt know about your own confirmation basis, you didnt notice all those times when you hadn’t talked about whatever you never shop for and it was shown in ads anyway.
If a marketing company had the ability to spy on behalf of advertising whats stopping some random app or the local police dept from doing it? And you can bet if this was at all possible the cops would be all over it to monitor “criminals”
It aint just google n facebork. They all do it. Even if youre just hanging out not browsing it can hear the environment around you
Is anything about american leadership in politics or business ever good for people?
Honestly so disgusted with this country.
No politics in this post, only business
Read this post. Disable microphone access on the phone.
Confirming what we already know. After the 100th time you get a recommendation for a product you mentioned in a conversation the day before you start to get a little suspicious.
Yeah, when I read this I was like ‘is anyone still denying ads use of microphone?’ Eight years ago I would be called paranoid, but now everybody experienced smartphone at it’s best.
”In most moments of the day, there’s a smart device in within two-inch radius of us. That means a smart device is likely within earshot when we talk about our plans for the weekend, how badly we need our kitchen remodeled, or which SUV model is best for the family with our spouse, and so much more,” the company wrote.
Facebook and Google swear they cast it into the fire, because they don’t want to take away your privacy to make money. Do you believe them?
Yes. This is Bigfoot territory dumb and ignorant.
Who could possibly imagine Google and Facebook doing something unethical, then lying about it?
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.
If a device can start listening when you say, “Hey Siri,” it can also start listening when you say other words.
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?
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.
The bootlickers love this thread
I just think most folks are ignorant to how the tech works and the entirety of the security industry. But I bet that makes me a bootlicker 🙄
We know, you don’t need to admit it 10 years after the fact.
./r/confidentlyincorrect 🤣
How do you fall for this shit hook line and sinker?
I’m only human, haha.
I’m glad to see the discussion going on.
A lot of seemingly smart people said that it would not make sense to do that.
🙄👌👍 you know something that millions of SecOps teams don’t. I thought Lemmy was going to raise the quality of technology conversation. Le sigh.
