Are Your Smart Devices Spying on You?
Advertising Company Claims It Can Listen to Your Personal Conversations
Most people might assume that worrying about your smart speaker or phone spying on you is just being paranoid, but a recent post by an ad company might make you reconsider. In a startling claim made on a blog post that has since been taken down (see screenshot below), CMG Local Solutions asserts that it can listen in on your personal conversations through your smart devices and target localized advertising to you across the same devices.
This company presents a startling possibility — that your casual conversations might not be private and could be used to feed targeted advertising. The concept of “Active Listening,” a term used by the company, employs technology that turns everyday conversation into valuable data for advertisers.
CMG introduces this technology, supposedly powered by advanced machine learning algorithms. It listens for keywords in conversations near your smart devices, enabling advertisers to target their ads more effectively. The process seems unnerving; advertisers create buyer profiles and identify keywords relevant to their local products or services. AI technology then listens for these keywords through devices like smartphones and smart TVs.
When potential customer interest is identified, their behaviors are analyzed, creating a list for targeted advertising across various platforms.
The company claims this technology is technically legal, as users often unknowingly consent to it through the fine print in those long terms and conditions. However, the glaring ethical concerns about privacy and consumer rights are obvious. Is it right for companies to eavesdrop on personal conversations for the sake of advertising efficiency? Most people would shout, “No!”
CMG Local Solutions boasts that Active Listening is a game-changer in the advertising world, boosting ROI (return on investment) and providing unprecedented insight into consumer behavior. They say the ads are so accurately targeted that they seem like mind-reading; most people would feel just that when a personal conversation quickly produces relevant ads soon after.
However, it seems inconceivable that the public will accept this. It makes one question the cost of our connected lifestyles. A quick check on major companies seems to contradict the possibility that this is happening, as Amazon promises that it doesn’t engage in such practices with Alexa, its smart device software. On its website Q&A, it addresses the question:
“Is Alexa still listening and recording everything I say?”
“No. Alexa is a part of your life only when you ask Alexa to be. By default, Alexa begins listening after your Echo device detects the wake word, so Alexa does not listen to your personal conversations.”
However, an unsettling example of the possibilities for invasion of privacy surfaced in a 2019 article regarding Apple’s personal assistant, Siri. An article in The Guardian reported: “Apple contractors regularly hear confidential medical information, drug deals, and recordings of couples having sex, as part of their job providing quality control.” But Apple claimed these recordings were accidental and that it has since fixed the problem.
Recent promises of AI personal assistants that will access data across all your web services and personal information on your computer seem to raise the stakes even higher. Can a company like Google, which makes its money from selling ads, be trusted with access to so much data about your life? Have we willingly surrendered too much privacy for modern conveniences?
