Media company fined after ‘lying’ about spying on users

Cox Media has been fined to settle allegations they lied about being able to spy on users.

Cox Media has been fined to settle allegations they lied about spying on users.

The company, along with marketing firms MindSift and 1010 Digital Works, have been find a total of $930,000 in a settlement over the allegations, having claimed they could secretly listen to users via their phones and smart devices.

In a bizarre twist, Cox’s Voice Data system – which it publicly bragged about in 2023 – has come under fire for not actually being able to do what it claimed.

At the time, Cox told potential digital marketing clients that they could make sure “every casual conversation between two consumers becomes a tool for you to target, retarget, and retain customers”.

The company itself compared the tech to something out of Black Mirror, and 404 Media reported several internal pitch decks making the same claim, even if Cox did try to backpedal and deny listening to conversations.

Now, the Federal Trade Commission has fined the companies involved.

In a press release, they said: “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 service the companies provided consisted of reselling — at a significant markup — email lists obtained from other data brokers.”

According to the complaints, the company also “did not seek or obtain consumers’ consent”, despite claiming they had “opted in” by agreeing to a terms of service.

The press release noted: “Clicking through mandatory terms of service does not constitute ‘opt-in consent’ for such an invasive service or for use of consumers’ voice data from inside their homes.”

Cox Media has been fined $880,000, with MindSift and 1010 Digital Works each paying $25,000, with the money going to “provide redress to CMG customers impacted by these practices”.

Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said: “Not only did the product these companies marketed not do what they claimed it did, but they also misled potential customers by claiming consumers had opted into this service when it’s clear they did not.

“It is a basic rule of business that you need to be honest with your customers, and these companies failed to do that.”