.Cox Media Group, a marketing arm of a cable giant, has been selling a creepy feature called "Active Listening" to its clients, with the slogan "It's True. Your Devices Are Listening to You."

On its website, which has now been taken down but can still be seen on the Web archives, it said: "With Active Listening, CMG can now use voice data to target your advertising to the EXACT people you are looking for."

Cox Media Group tried to backtrack and said it uses "third-party vendor products" that collect data from users who agree to the terms and conditions of various apps and social media. It said it does not listen to conversations or have access to anything beyond a "third-party aggregated, anonymised and fully encrypted data set" that can be used for ad placement. It also said that it regrets any confusion and is committed to clear and transparent marketing.

But Cox Media Group did not explain why it promoted a service called "Active Listening" or claimed it could listen to people through their devices.

Documents found by from 404 Media show that Cox's tech uses artificial intelligence to pick up relevant conversations from smartphones, smart TVs, and other gadgets. The service claims to deliver ads to those customers using streaming video and audio, display ads, and Web search results on services like Google, Bing, and YouTube.

Cox Media Group should have provided technical details of how the service works or how it would bypass the safety measures put in place by Apple and others to stop it from doing so.

But the company said it's legal because most people don't bother reading the long and boring terms and conditions when they update their apps on their devices.

The Apple fanboys insist that it's impossible on iPhones and only an Android problem. But Google says that it's not possible to do what Cox Media Group says on Android either, since Android 11 in 2020.

"For years, Android has prevented apps from collecting audio when they're not being actively used, and whenever an app activates a device's microphone, a prominent icon is displayed in the status bar," Google said.

Both Apple and Android apps have a green indicator at the top right corner of your screen when the microphone is being used. If you swipe down and tap on the indicator, you can check which app or service uses your camera or microphone.

Cox Media Group has removed the webpage advertising the service, which would be illegal in Europe and most of the US, and so far, there have been no more comments since Christmas.