Cox Media Faces Penalties for Claiming to Monitor Users via Their Phones

A bizarre controversy has resurfaced involving Cox Media and two marketing firms, which claimed they were eavesdropping on users through phones and smart devices, despite scant evidence supporting their ability to do so. Recently, the Federal Trade Commission revealed that Cox, MindSift, and 1010 Digital Works would collectively pay $930,000 to resolve allegations of misleading claims about spying on individuals for ad targeting.

As reported a couple of years back, Cox made headlines in 2023 by promoting a system called Voice Data, pitching it to potential digital marketing clients as a way to turn “every casual conversation between two consumers into a tool for targeting, retargeting, and retaining customers.” They likened the technology to an episode of Black Mirror, echoing the widespread but largely unfounded belief that social media platforms listen in on users via phone microphones. Although Cox later retracted its claims about listening to conversations, internal pitch materials surfaced that reiterated this unsettling assertion.

At the time, skepticism about these practices was rampant, and the FTC’s findings support this doubt. According to their press release, “This service did not, in fact, listen in on consumers’ conversations or use voice data at all — nor did the service accurately place ads in customers’ desired locations.” Instead, the companies were found to be reselling email lists acquired from other data brokers at inflated prices. The agency also stated that the firms misled consumers about opting into this system, meaning that even if they had the capability to spy, they would still be violating the law.