Cox Brags It Spies On Users With Device Microphones To Sell Targeted Ads, But It’s Not Clear They Actually Can

For years, the cable industry has dreamed of a future where they could use your cable box to actively track your every behavior using cameras and microphones and then monetize the data. At one point way back in 2009, Comcast made it clear they were even interested in using embedded microphones and cameras to monitor the number of people in living rooms and listen in on conversations.

Last December, internal documents obtained by 404 Media indicated that cable giant Cox Communications claimed to have finally achieved this longstanding vision: it was now able to monitor consumers via microphones embedded in phones, smart TVs, and cable boxes, leverage the audio data, then exploit it to target those users with tailored advertising.

At the time, the Cox Media Group (CMG) website openly bragged about the technology, crowing about how such surveillance was perfectly legal (though, even under our pathetic existing privacy and wiretap laws, it very likely isn’t). Shortly after the 404 Media story appeared, Cox deleted the website in question and issued a statement denying they were doing anything out of the ordinary:

CMG businesses do not listen to any conversations or have access to anything beyond a third-party aggregated, anonymized and fully encrypted data set that can be used for ad placement. We regret any confusion and we are committed to ensuring our marketing is clear and transparent.

Eight months later and 404 Media has obtained another pitch deck being used by Cox, crowing about its ability to listen in on consumers in order to sell them targeted ads under the company’s “Active Listening” program. This pitch deck advertises the company’s partnerships with Google, Amazon, Microsoft. Google says it removed CMG from its Partners Program after an “investigation” prompted by 404 Media.

It’s not clear Cox is truly capable of doing what it claims or if it’s overstating its abilities just to woo ad partners. But the marketing deck is pretty clear:

“The power of voice (and our devices’ microphones),” the slide deck starts. “Smart devices capture real-time intent data by listening to our conversations. Advertisers can pair this voice-data with behavioral data to target in-market consumers. We use AI to collect this data from 470+ sources to improve campaign deployment, targeting and performance.”

If real, it likely includes the myriad “smart” television sets that increasingly have little to no real consumer privacy standards. It may also include everything from smart phones and cable boxes to the myriad other household “smart” devices with embedded mics, from home security hubs to your smart refrigerator.

Cox’s original, since deleted website crowing about its “active listening” tech even went so far as to compare its own technology to a black mirror episode:

What would it mean for your business if you could target potential clients who are actively discussing their need for your services in their day-to-day conversations? No, it’s not a Black Mirror episode—it’s Voice Data, and CMG has the capabilities to use it to your business advantage.

Since the U.S. is too corrupt to pass a meaningful modern internet-era privacy law or regulate data brokers, it remains a sort of wild west when it comes to consumer surveillance and monetization. Companies routinely justify the behavior by insisting the data is “anonymized”; a meaningless, gibberish word used to pretend these kinds of ad surveillance systems are legal, private, and secure.

Because corporate lobbying has increasingly boxed in privacy regulation at the FCC and FTC, the folks supposedly tasked with investing potential privacy abuses lack the staff, resources, and authority to police the problem at the massive scale it’s happening. And that’s before recent Supreme Court rulings further stripped away the independence and authority of U.S. regulators.

The U.S. government, keen to bypass warrants by buying consumer data from data brokers themselves, has repeatedly made it clear that making money is more important than consumer trust and public safety. As a result we have countless companies monitoring your every fart, and non-transparently selling it to any number of noxious individuals who can use it to cause active harm (see: Wyden’s revelations on abortion clinic visitor data).