smartphone people talking the phone listens to us

Do phones really listen to us to serve us targeted ads?

This doubt has come to everyone at least once in their lives, especially when we see advertisements related to what we have just talked about with someone... but do phones really listen to us? Let's find out what is true, if it is practicable, how we could delude ourselves about it and what to really pay attention to if we care about our privacy.
January 28 2025

Are phones listening to us? Our smartphones, while we are having live conversations with our friends or family, is really able and authorized to register us to offer us targeted advertisingHow many times have you been talking about something and found yourself, in Web sites, on apps or on Social, disturbingly conversation-related ads?

Let's just say that the certainty of being heard can happen because of a confirmation bias, or a mechanism by which we tend to notice events that confirm our beliefs more, underestimating those that contradict them. In other words, If we think our phones are listening to us, we are more likely to notice ads that seem to confirm this idea., neglecting all the others.

Partly because, even though it's scary, in a certain sense it's perhaps more exciting. perception to find ourselves in a world at Matrix.

A dystopian world where we are asleep, where artificial intelligence It deceives us, dominates us and cultivates us to feed itself… but we decide to wake up and join the ranks of the heroes of the resistance.

morpheus matrix red pill blue pill are our phones listening to us?

The Cox Media Group case could be proof that our phones are listening to us

But can the concern really be reduced to an ironic comparison with the film? Matrix or paranoia? Is there data and concrete evidence that smartphones are able to actively listen to us to serve us targeted advertising?

blog cmg that refers to active listening service telephone listens to us
Credits: Cox Media Group

According to a survey by the highly authoritative newspaper 404 Media, Cox Media Group was advertising a service for Marketing professionals named Active Listening: that is, active listening. This service included the ability to listen to microphones installed in smartphones, smart TVs and other devices… and look at the partners it claimed to have:

google amazon fb cmg partners phones listen to us
Credits: Cox Media Group

That Cox Media Group offered this service is verified and evidence can be found on 404 Media. The topic is also mentioned on Wikipedia, on the CMG page itself, and articles on the subject have also been written by other important newspapers such as Repubblica.

The big tech companies involved categorically deny supporting or ever having supported such practices… but how can we understand where the truth lies?

Let's try to get there by asking ourselves the right questions.

Is continuous listening technically possible?

Despite the Cox Media case, anecdotes and subjective beliefs, There is no concrete evidence that demonstrate that technology companies are using the microphones in our devices to constantly record our conversations on a large scale. This needs to be said.

Then it must be added that the practice of actively listening to billions of people by big tech, in addition to being highly invasive of the privacy, and therefore extremely dangerous for their image, would be above all inefficient from a computational point of view. In fact, to create such a structure would require an enormous amount of money, facilities and energy resources.

This It does not exclude occasional listening (on permissions granted to apps active in the background) and limited listening, nor does it exclude the collection of our personal data in many other ways and that come also used illegally.

And this, to a certain extent, we can avoid with some practices that we will see later.

But first, to better understand what we are talking about, we need to know how targeted advertising works.

How do targeted ads actually work?

Advertisements that seem to “read our minds” are the result of a complex profiling system based on a wide range of data, including:

  • Browsing history: which leaves precise traces of our interests.
  • Installed apps (including social networks): to which we give a thousand permissions and which provide information on our hobbies and passions.
  • Interactions with ads: clicks on advertisements and searches performed on search engine help create a personalized profile.
  • Demographics: information we know is open such as age, gender and geographic location.

If you are interested in learning more about how targeted advertising works, you can read our dedicated article. Otherwise, you just need to know that this large amount of personal data from multiple sources is already sufficient to create fairly coherent profiles. Profiles, which are subjected to various advertisements to understand which are the more effective advertising. In short, those who offer us advertising, especially in the initial stages, are trial and error.

E we can decide to a good extent what to accept, what not to accept and how to protect ourselves from messages and recordings that we don't like.

smartphone with green screen and black headphones with which to listen

How to stop phones from listening to us

Regardless of the fear of being listened to by your smartphone, it is advisable to adopt some or all of the following precautions: computer security to avoid any unwanted violations. Violations not only of privacy, but also of data that can potentially expose you to other types of scams, especially if you approach suspicious applications or sites:

  • Only grant apps the permissions they absolutely need.
  • Use a VPN.
  • Periodically delete your browsing history and cookies.
  • If you don't use voice assistant, turn it off to avoid accidental activations.

But do phones really listen to us or not?

Technically It could be possible, but only to a certain extent, even just occasionally or limited to the declaration of certain keywords or to the maintenance of app in the background which was previously given permission to use the microphone.

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