Listening Capacity of Smart Devices: Are They Really Listening to Us?

The Listening Capacity of Our Smart Devices: Are They Really Listening to Us?

Have you ever thought that your smartphone or a similar smart device is listening to you? Have you suddenly noticed ads related to a specific topic as soon as you started discussing it? Here, a leaked sales presentation from a large advertising media firm confirms such concerns.

The digital marketing service Cox Media Group (CMG), which collaborates with giants like Google, Meta (the owner of Facebook), Microsoft, and Amazon, reveals the use of tracking and listening technologies in this presentation. This leaked document surfaced in the media in November 2023, and in the sales pitch that CMG presented to these major tech giants, the listening technology was referred to as Audio Data. CMG details how this data can be used by businesses to target ads more effectively. In other words, our phones are indeed listening to us and sharing what they hear with advertisers.

This means that many of our private conversations, from our weekend plans to how much we need to renovate our kitchen, and even which SUV model is most suitable for our family, are being recorded by smart devices. Subsequently, relevant ads are instantly delivered to our digital devices: “Are you going to buy a new SUV? The perfect SUV is here! Hurry up and get it.“

Every sentence that comes out of your mouth will turn into an ad for you. This constant listening situation raises questions once again about people’s understanding of privacy. Why is our private life, the inside of our homes, and our conversations continuously recorded on the servers of tech companies? For Generation Z, this may not be a big issue, but these developments indicate that the understanding of privacy in the world will rapidly change in the near future.