Our phones really spy on us

After years and years of rumors and speculation, the biggest conspiracy theory of all time has been confirmed, our phones are listening to us. A phenomenon now familiar to many: after a chat with friends at the bar about a new phone or the latest shoes, a flood of ads for that product immediately appears on social media and various online sites. The confirmation came from the magazine 404 Media, which shared a leak of documents from Cox Media Group (CMG), an advertising partner of groups like Meta and Amazon. In the leaked pitch deck, the company was trying to sell its software called "Active Listening." This system allows clients to associate “real-time intent data” through our smart devices that listen to our conversations and convert them into marketing data via artificial intelligence. After the news broke, Meta announced it would review its partnership with CMG to check for potential violations of terms of service. Although listed as a general partner, Meta clarified that it does not use users’ microphones for advertising and is requesting CMG to specify that their program is not based on Meta’s data. Google removed CMG from its list of partners, while Amazon stated that it has never collaborated with them and will take action if any rule violations are found. Let’s just say they all washed their hands of it a little bit.

This news, shocking (but not too much), brings the issue of privacy and data management back to the forefront, a topic that was central in scandals like Cambridge Analytica. In that case, it was confirmed that the British consulting firm collected the personal data of millions of Facebook users without their consent. Today, we perceive a shift in the advertising world: if in the past there was a true creative effort in developing campaigns, today many brands prefer to collect sensitive data to subliminally sell their products. With artificial intelligence becoming ever more powerful and major social media conglomerates constantly competing, users are bombarded with new terms and conditions that, in fact, no one ever reads. The only hope lies in the role of governments and legislation. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the European Union tightened regulations on data protection, so much so that Meta and Google’s AI technologies are still not available in the 27 countries, and Apple's new iOS 18 update does not yet include ChatGPT integration with Siri. The United States, on the other hand, continues its battle against TikTok, driven by political motives. The U.S. Congress accuses TikTok of sharing user data with the Chinese Communist Party, although there is no concrete evidence. If you don't want to give away any of your information to the data banks, remember: cookies are only good when you eat them, and you should never accept all cookies from strangers.