Media conglomerate Cox Media Group has been pitching tech companies on a new targeted advertising tool that uses audio recordings culled from smart home devices. The existence of this program waslate last year. Now, however, 404 Media has also gotten its hands on additional details about the program through a leaked pitch dek. The contents of the dek are creepy, to say the least.
Some of the companies listed in the dek seem like they are a little bit wary of the legal ramifications of Cox’s “Active Listening” product. When 404 Media confronted Google about the pitch dek, the company said it dropped Cox Media Group from its advertising partners program.
When contacted by Gizmodo, a Meta spokesperson wrote via email: “We don’t have any comment. But just to clarify, the pitch deck in the article lists Meta as a general marketing partner, not as a partner ‘in this program'”. They then provided a link to aGizmodo reached out to Cox Media Group as well as Google. We will update this story when we learn more.