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Cox Media fined after bragging it spied on users through their phones
- Adi Robertson
- May 25, 2026 at 6:28 PM
- 8 views
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 …
Originally published at The Verge