A partner of Facebook and Google boasted that it was listening to users to target ads

After the information leak, Google began to remove all traces of cooperation, while Facebook announced an audit.

As reported by 404 MediaCox Media Group (CMG) has introduced a tool to its advertising clients that allegedly allows «to listen to» social media users through a microphone and analyze what kind of advertising to target them with the help of AI.

In the slideshow at the presentation, CMG cited Facebook, Google, and Amazon as examples of social networks that are allegedly partners of its «Active Listening» service.

After journalists contacted Google for comment, the company quickly removed references to CMG from its «Partner Program», while Meta announced that it would check whether its partner was violating the terms of service.

Meanwhile, an Amazon spokesperson said that the company’s «advertising department has never worked with CMG on this program and has no plans to do so».

It’s been done before!

The latest round is just one in a series of reports about CMG’s shadow service. Last December, 404 Media noticed that the company was bragging about the technology on a podcast.

And the reports of listening for ad targeting are not new, as we often see the results of the tool in our own feeds.

CMG charges from $100 per day for the service — to target people within a radius of 15 km or more.

CMG did not comment on Gizmodo’s and Futurism’s inquiries, but given that the presentation is saved in the archiveIt will be difficult for a company to deny that it received money for listening to users. In the United States, most states have laws that limit the ability to record a person without their explicit consent.