A new controversy has shaken the technological sector after the publication of internal documents that point to the existence of an active listening system integrated in mobile phones. According to the investigation of the American media 404, the filtration would come from the company Cox Media Group, giant of digital marketing, and would confirm that the microphones of the devices not only record audio fragments, but also that They analyze its content with the help of artificial intelligence.
The documentation consulted describes software capable of interpreting in real time the conversations captured by the microphone. This tool, supported by advanced language models, examines the phrases, identifies intentions or moods and crosses them with navigation and digital behavior data of each user. The result would be an extremely precise profile that would allow refine custom advertising campaigns to unpublished levels.
In practical terms, if a person speaks in his living room about a vacation in Greece, the system could detect that intention and show, minutes later, Related flights or hotels.
Privacy in question
The most worrying, according to experts in digital ethics, is that this procedure would be carried out automatically and continuously, without the users having a clear mechanism to deactivate the follow -up. That is, nor there would be the “not participating” optionraising a potential conflict with the regulations for the protection of current data in Europe and other territories.
Privacy defense organizations warn that this type of permanent listening places consumers in a position of helplessness. By combining discursive information with the digital history available, companies could prepare Much more intrusive behavior maps than any conventional tracking on the Internet.
The issue is not only commercial. The use of continuous listening systems raises Great Legal and Social Questions: To what extent is it legitimate to transform private conversations in raw material for advertising?
Some researchers remember that the call active listening, in its traditional communicative dimension, refers to genuine empathy and attention in human dialogue. However, applied to the technological field, the expression acquires an opposite nuance: that of a follow -up that converts intimacy into a commercial resource.