Marketing Company Claims That It Is Listening to Device | Hacker News Reader

Marketing Company Claims That It Is Listening to Device

404media.co

68 pointsMBCook9 comments

Wow. This is just completely insane and shameless.

Marketing page: http://web.archive.org/web/20231214235524/https://www.cmgloc...

"It's True. Your Devices Are Listening to You."

Blog post: http://web.archive.org/web/20231214234802/https://www.cmgloc...

"No, it's not a Black Mirror episode-it's Voice Data, and CMG has the capabilities to use it to your business advantage."

"Creepy? Sure. Great for marketing? Definitely."

Another blog post: http://web.archive.org/web/20231214235309/https://www.cmgloc...

"We know what you're thinking. Is this even legal? The short answer is: yes. It is legal for phones and devices to listen to you. When a new app download or update prompts consumers with a multi-page terms of use agreement somewhere in the fine print, Active Listening is often included."

I'm trying to wrap my head around how CMG Local is owned by Cox but can't seem to afford the paid version of Hubspot: https://www.cmglocalsolutions.com/blog/how-voice-data-works-...

If you read the section on "Wake words" and how they work (written by the CEO himself!) you'll realize he really has no idea what he is talking about.

This is a small operation that doesn't actually have the technology they are promising. This is almost certainly a bait and switch operation to gather leads for a traditional (scammy) SEO operation.

CMG Local was mostly spun out from Cox to the PE scumbags (double negative) at Apollo.

This seems like a bunch of BS by the agency part. They don’t own any devices and wouldn’t br able to do this without the manufacturers approval. And I don’t see many manufacturers agreeing to this for the obvious downsides and risks.

Does the TV really have a microphone, or is it rather the remote?

Looks like there might be another microphone I need to bust.

The marketing company is owned by Cox, an ISP, cable, phone, and general media conglomerate. This capability is apparently already active and being sold.

The full article title is: "Marketing Company Claims That It Actually Is Listening to Your Phone and Smart Speakers to Target Ads"

Yeah I had to trim it down to fit HN.

But I’d love to see more proof of this. I fully believe it’s happening, but only on some devices.

For example I doubt Apple devices do it (they’ve locked that down a lot and added recording indicators). Or any other relatively premium brand like Sony or Samsung. But I fully believe the ultra cheap versions of things like TVs or Android phones would do it. A $50 Android phone at a gas station has to make money somehow.

Cox Media Group was actually spun out from Cox and the two appear largely independent.

You're right, but Wikipedia says that Cox Enterprises (which owns the ISP) retains a 29% stake in CMG.

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