‘Creepy’ Listening Tool for Targeted Ads Didn’t Actually Work, FTC Says
‘Creepy’ Listening Tool for Targeted Ads Didn’t Actually Work, FTC Says
“令人毛骨悚然”的定向广告监听工具其实根本无效，FTC 如是说
The Federal Trade Commission announced on Thursday that Cox Media Group and two other marketing companies, MindSift LLC and 1010 Digital Works, have agreed to collectively pay nearly $1 million to settle allegations that they deceived their customers—other businesses—by claiming that they could help target ads based on audio recordings collected from consumers’ smart devices via a marketing service called Active Listening.
美国联邦贸易委员会（FTC）周四宣布，考克斯媒体集团（Cox Media Group，简称 CMG）以及另外两家营销公司 MindSift LLC 和 1010 Digital Works 已同意共同支付近 100 万美元，以和解针对其欺骗客户（其他企业）的指控。这些公司曾声称，他们可以通过一项名为“主动监听”（Active Listening）的营销服务，利用从消费者智能设备中收集的音频记录来投放定向广告。
In a statement to WIRED, a spokesperson for CMG says, “We are pleased to have this matter resolved. Our local marketing team relied on marketing materials provided to us by a third-party vendor about their product. We withdrew the materials expeditiously and stopped further use of the product.”
CMG 的一位发言人在给《连线》（WIRED）杂志的声明中表示：“我们很高兴此事得到解决。我们的本地营销团队依赖于第三方供应商提供的产品营销材料。我们已迅速撤回了这些材料，并停止了对该产品的进一步使用。”
MindSift and 1010 Digital Works did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Disclosure: The author of this article previously worked for the FTC.)
MindSift 和 1010 Digital Works 未能立即回应置评请求。（披露：本文作者曾供职于 FTC。）
Over the years, conspiracy theories about companies listening to people through their phones in order to serve them ads have been repeatedly debunked. The marketing about Active Listening, which was first reported by 404 Media, stoked those fears. According to the FTC, at one point a website advertising the service included the slogan, “Creepy? Sure. Great for marketing? Definitely.”
多年来，关于公司通过手机监听用户以投放广告的阴谋论已被多次辟谣。而由 404 Media 最先报道的“主动监听”营销活动，再次煽动了这些担忧。据 FTC 称，该服务曾在一个广告网站上打出这样的标语：“令人毛骨悚然？当然。对营销有帮助吗？绝对有。”
In three separate complaints, the FTC says that CMG made several claims about its ability to collect consumers’ conversations from “smartphones, smart TVs, smart speakers and other devices” and then use AI to target ads to potential customers based on where they live and what they said. CMG and the other companies also said that consumers had consented to the collection and use of their voice data, according to the complaints.
在三份独立的投诉中，FTC 指出，CMG 声称其有能力从“智能手机、智能电视、智能音箱及其他设备”中收集消费者的对话，并利用人工智能根据消费者的居住地和谈话内容向潜在客户投放定向广告。投诉还显示，CMG 及其他公司曾声称消费者已同意收集和使用其语音数据。
The FTC alleges that none of those things were true. Instead, the FTC contends that what CMG was offering was “nothing more than consumer email list buying” and that the lists it resold were “a significant markup over the cost of the data.”
FTC 指控称，上述说法均非事实。相反，FTC 认为 CMG 所提供的服务“不过是购买消费者电子邮件列表”，且其转售的列表价格“远高于数据本身的成本”。
As part of their agreements with the FTC, CMG and the two other companies promised not to make misrepresentations about their marketing services or their collection and use of audio recordings or transcripts of consumer conversations.
作为与 FTC 和解协议的一部分，CMG 和另外两家公司承诺，不再对其营销服务，或对消费者对话音频记录及转录文本的收集与使用做出虚假陈述。
CMG agreed to pay $880,000, while MindSift and 1010 Digital Works each agreed to pay $25,000. The combined $930,000 will go to businesses that were “impacted” by the three companies’ practices, according to the FTC—in other words, businesses that purchased the Active Listening marketing service because they were under the impression that the service worked as advertised, including that people consented to having their voice data used.
CMG 同意支付 88 万美元，而 MindSift 和 1010 Digital Works 各自同意支付 2.5 万美元。据 FTC 称，总计 93 万美元的赔偿金将发放给受这三家公司行为“影响”的企业——换句话说，就是那些因为相信该服务如广告所言（包括人们已同意使用其语音数据）而购买了“主动监听”营销服务的企业。
The FTC’s complaints don’t make allegations about whether it’s illegal to use audio recordings collected from people’s smart devices to target them with ads, but the FTC clearly has a problem when a company says it does that but actually doesn’t. In a statement, Christopher Mufarrige, the FTC’s director of the bureau of consumer protection, says, “It is a basic rule of business that you need to be honest with your customers, and these companies failed to do that.”
FTC 的投诉并未指控利用从智能设备收集的音频记录进行定向广告投放是否违法，但 FTC 明确表示，如果一家公司声称自己能做到这一点，而实际上却做不到，这就是一个问题。FTC 消费者保护局局长克里斯托弗·穆法里奇（Christopher Mufarrige）在一份声明中表示：“对客户诚实是商业的基本准则，而这些公司未能做到这一点。”