Nothing really new about devices’ ‘active listening’

How many times have you casually mentioned buying, say, new curtains to your spouse, then found yourself bombarded with ads for window treatments the next time you opened a new browser tab on your computer?

How many times has that kind of thing left you assuming that your phone, smart speaker, etc. is listening in on your conversations and adding relevant material to advertising databases?

Advertising platforms always deny it, and maybe — maybe — they’ve been technically honest in denying it. But there’s no doubt they track you in various ways, from browser history to phone location, and that they use the data they gather to target advertising at you.

If your phone notices you visited Home Depot or Lowe’s and your browser history shows you looking at gazebo plans, you’ll probably start seeing ads for tools and building materials shortly thereafter.

Now we have evidence of actual eavesdropping on your conversations.

Last year, Cox Media Group admitted — nay, promoted” — its “Active Listening” technology  in a since-deleted blog post: “Imagine … a world where no pre-purchase murmurs go unanalyzed, and the whispers of consumers become a tool for you to target, retarget and conquer your local market.”

Last month, 404 Media reported (in a paywalled article) on a CMG “pitch deck” further promoting the technology and claiming major partnerships with Facebook, Google and other major firms to deploy it. The unconvincing responses from those major firms range from outright denial to promised “investigations.”

If that technology really is just now rolling out for advertisers, my only question is why it took so long.

We know, courtesy of exiled whistleblower Edward Snowden, that the U.S. government possesses those kinds of capabilities — the NSA calls it “Google for Voice” — and has used them on us for decades. Once the “private sector” knows a thing can be done, it figures out how to do that thing in profitable ways.

Here’s the part where most writers start bemoaning our loss of privacy and suggesting ways to get it back.

OK, fine … I bemoan our loss of privacy. Happy?

As for getting it back, nothing short of full global reversion to a pre-computer level of technology would suffice.

Am I happy that Bing knows I’m very interested in motorcycles at the moment and keeps showing me ads and stories about them?

Yes, kind of. It’s a little creepy, but also very useful.

Am I concerned that this level of data-gathering will produce terrible outcomes?

Absolutely.

Am I willing to cancel my internet service, throw away my smartphone and Echo Dot, wear “facial recognition defeat” clothing everywhere I go, etc., just to keep Google from knowing I’m house-hunting?

Nope.

For better or worse, privacy is dead.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism ( thegarrisoncenter.org ). He lives and works in north-central Florida.

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