So, have you ever thought your devices were listening to what you were saying, and then ads for that thing would show up...and all the pundits kept telling us it was coincidence and we were just seeing patterns because people seek patterns?

Yeah...naw. @404mediaco in their tradition of breaking all kinds of news, would like to tell you that you're not insane, and the pundits were wrong.

404 brings receipts: Cox Media Group (CMG) says it can target adverts based on what potential customers said out loud near device microphones, and explicitly points to Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Bing as CMG partners.

MindSift boasted about targeting advertisements by listening to peoples’ everyday conversations through microphones in their smart speakers.

Here's the deck, read it for yourself: 404media.co/heres-the-pitch-de…

(free signup may be required, iirc, but if you've got spare change, consider subscribing too. They're doing yeoman's work out here on the data front.)
#Enshittification

Here’s the Pitch Deck for ‘Active Listening’ Ad Targeting

404 Media previously reported Cox Media Group (CMG) was advertising a service that claimed to target ads based on what potential customers said near device microphones. Now, here is the pitch deck CMG sent to prospective companies.

^{Joseph Cox (404 Media)}