The FTC’s Active Listening complaints settle Cox Media Group for $880,000 under Section 5 of the FTC Act.
CMG’s Local Solutions unit marketed a product called Active Listening with the tagline “It’s true. Your devices are listening to you.” A since-deleted 2023 blog post claimed the service could “detect relevant conversations via smartphones, smart TVs, and other devices” in real time, backed by a CMG partner with a “growing ability to access microphone data on devices.” That’s a strong claim.
The agency’s complaints are direct: Active Listening “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.” What customers got was resold email lists from data brokers, at a significant markup. CMG’s own spokesperson admitted as much to Ars Technica in 2023, characterizing the data set as “third-party aggregated, anonymized, and fully encrypted.” Two marketing firms that distributed Active Listening alongside CMG, MindSift LLC (New Hampshire) and 1010 Digital Works LLC (Wisconsin), each settle for $25,000. Redress goes to affected customers.
This isn’t a consumer privacy case in the traditional sense. The deception ran against CMG’s advertising customers: small businesses paid for voice-triggered targeting and received rebadged lists. I read the consent terms; CMG is barred from misrepresenting voice data collection or geographic targeting capabilities going forward. AI-washing in local ad tech can run for years before the FTC arrives; the Active Listening website first surfaced in November 2023. Worth auditing any AI-capability claim in your current ad contracts before the agency closes the next one.
Rebecca Lauren