Cox Media fined after bragging it spied on users through their phones
Cox Media and two marketing firms agreed to pay $930,000 to settle FTC allegations that they falsely claimed to use smart device data to listen to consumer conversations for targeted advertising. The settlement addresses deceptive marketing practices.
Why it matters
This case highlights growing regulatory scrutiny over digital privacy and the deceptive use of 'surveillance capitalism' narratives in marketing.
An exceptionally weird controversy has come back to haunt Cox Media and a pair of marketing firms, which claimed they were secretly listening to users via phones and smart devices - despite little evidence they actually could. On Thursday the Federal Trade Commission announced that Cox, MindSift, and 1010 Digital Works would pay a total of $930,000 to settle allegations that they were in fact lying about spying on people to target ads. As chronicled by Techdirt a couple of years ago, Cox publicly boasted about a system called Voice Data back in 2023, telling potential digital marketing clients they could ensure "every casual conversation be … Read the full story at The Verge.
The article objectively reports on a legal settlement and the underlying allegations of deceptive business practices.
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