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For many years, there has been a conspiracy theory among ordinary people that phones “eavesdrop” on users even when they are turned off. For example, to register keywords and then show relevant contextual advertising. Some have noticed that after discussing a specific subject offline, they then see an ad on this topic in Google.
The mysterious phenomenon goes even further. You don’t even have to pronounce the keywords out loud. Google starts showing ads even for the toothpaste you accidentally brushed your teeth with. Scientists talk about the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (frequency illusion), but the general public does not really believe in such a simple explanation.
However, recently the theory about the smartphone working in hidden wiretapping mode has received indirect confirmation.
Slides from a pitch deck (short presentation) by CMG Local Solutions, a subsidiary of Cox Media Group (CMG), have been leaked. They detail a new method called active listening. The corresponding page has since been removed from the company's website, but is preserved in the Internet Archive:
The method uses machine learning functions, combining a user's voice data with their behavioral data from the Internet for hyper-targeted advertising.
In other words, a person's profile now includes not only their internet surfing history and other personal data from their phone, but also "voice data" in "active listening" mode.
Slides from the CMG Local Solutions pitch deck:
A CMG spokesperson explained that “CMG companies do not listen to conversations and only have access to aggregated, anonymized, and fully encrypted data sets from third parties that are used to serve ads”.
In other words, CMG purchases existing voice data sets from third-party providers. This means that some mobile apps on a smartphone may be running in listening mode, recording and recognizing people’s voice(s) in the background.
The slides mention several tech companies, such as Google, Meta, and Amazon, though they all deny any involvement in the active listening program.
A Google spokesperson said that operating in this mode violates the Google Ads policies, and that Google intends to identify advertisers who violate these policies and take “appropriate action”. Specifically, Cox Media Group was removed from Google’s partner program as part of the review process.
The data comes from mobile apps that record audio in the background, ostensibly with the user’s consent, unless the user unchecks a box in the terms of service when installing the app. Studies have shown that 91% of people agree to terms and conditions without reading them. Among people aged 18-24, this figure is 97%.
The fact is that even without hidden wiretapping, smartphones collect a lot of confidential information about the user, including geolocation (GPS coordinates are sent to the server every 15 minutes):
Analysis of traffic between the Pixel 9 Pro XL smartphone and Google servers revealed authentication packets with coordinates every 15 minutes.
The user's coordinates are tracked even with the GPS function turned off.
The social graph (relatives, friends, colleagues and other contacts), place of work, interests and hobbies, political preferences, etc. are also analyzed. All this information is collected through data brokers and sold to advertisers who receive a ready-made profile, that is, a "digital twin" of a real person. Having digital profiles of the population of an entire country, you can conduct various sociological experiments, as well as target advertising.
In order for an app to actively listen, it needs permission to access the microphone. On Android and iOS devices, this permission is explicitly requested when installing or updating the app.
Apps can also request background access, which allows them to continue listening even when the app is not in use. There are several ways to detect microphone usage: iOS now shows an orange or green dot in the status bar when the microphone or camera is in use. Android also has visual indicators that alert users when the microphone is actively in use.
It should be added that voice assistants like Siri, Alexa and Google are also constantly listening to the user in the background, as they need to catch trigger words like “Hey Siri”.
Source
The mysterious phenomenon goes even further. You don’t even have to pronounce the keywords out loud. Google starts showing ads even for the toothpaste you accidentally brushed your teeth with. Scientists talk about the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (frequency illusion), but the general public does not really believe in such a simple explanation.
However, recently the theory about the smartphone working in hidden wiretapping mode has received indirect confirmation.
Slides from a pitch deck (short presentation) by CMG Local Solutions, a subsidiary of Cox Media Group (CMG), have been leaked. They detail a new method called active listening. The corresponding page has since been removed from the company's website, but is preserved in the Internet Archive:
The method uses machine learning functions, combining a user's voice data with their behavioral data from the Internet for hyper-targeted advertising.
In other words, a person's profile now includes not only their internet surfing history and other personal data from their phone, but also "voice data" in "active listening" mode.
Slides from the CMG Local Solutions pitch deck:
A CMG spokesperson explained that “CMG companies do not listen to conversations and only have access to aggregated, anonymized, and fully encrypted data sets from third parties that are used to serve ads”.
In other words, CMG purchases existing voice data sets from third-party providers. This means that some mobile apps on a smartphone may be running in listening mode, recording and recognizing people’s voice(s) in the background.
The slides mention several tech companies, such as Google, Meta, and Amazon, though they all deny any involvement in the active listening program.
A Google spokesperson said that operating in this mode violates the Google Ads policies, and that Google intends to identify advertisers who violate these policies and take “appropriate action”. Specifically, Cox Media Group was removed from Google’s partner program as part of the review process.
The data comes from mobile apps that record audio in the background, ostensibly with the user’s consent, unless the user unchecks a box in the terms of service when installing the app. Studies have shown that 91% of people agree to terms and conditions without reading them. Among people aged 18-24, this figure is 97%.
The fact is that even without hidden wiretapping, smartphones collect a lot of confidential information about the user, including geolocation (GPS coordinates are sent to the server every 15 minutes):
Analysis of traffic between the Pixel 9 Pro XL smartphone and Google servers revealed authentication packets with coordinates every 15 minutes.
The user's coordinates are tracked even with the GPS function turned off.
The social graph (relatives, friends, colleagues and other contacts), place of work, interests and hobbies, political preferences, etc. are also analyzed. All this information is collected through data brokers and sold to advertisers who receive a ready-made profile, that is, a "digital twin" of a real person. Having digital profiles of the population of an entire country, you can conduct various sociological experiments, as well as target advertising.
In order for an app to actively listen, it needs permission to access the microphone. On Android and iOS devices, this permission is explicitly requested when installing or updating the app.
Apps can also request background access, which allows them to continue listening even when the app is not in use. There are several ways to detect microphone usage: iOS now shows an orange or green dot in the status bar when the microphone or camera is in use. Android also has visual indicators that alert users when the microphone is actively in use.
It should be added that voice assistants like Siri, Alexa and Google are also constantly listening to the user in the background, as they need to catch trigger words like “Hey Siri”.
Source
