💬 Quoted: "Creepy? Sure. Great for marketing? Definitely."

Our devices could be like Dr. Frasier Crane – always listening. One of Facebook, Google, and Amazon’s alleged marketing partners can listen in on users' smartphone microphones and advertise to them accordingly, per a recently obtained November 2023 pitch deck put together by media giant Cox Media Group (CMG). In the documents, which were leaked to 404 Media, CMG says its "Active Listening" software can listen in on conversations occurring near smart devices – including smartphones, smart speakers, and smart TVs – then use that voice data to hyper-target consumers with relevant ads with the help of AI tools.

• The same pitch deck includes a section where CMG counted Facebook, Google, and Amazon as clients – though it didn't specify whether the tech giants were involved in the "Active Listening" service. In separate statements, all three companies denied working with CMG on its “Active Listening” program and said the media firm was only a general partner.
• More from CMG: "We know what you're thinking. Is this even legal? The short answer is: yes. It is legal for phones and devices to listen to you. When a new app download or update prompts consumers with a multi-page term of use agreement somewhere in the fine print, Active Listening is often included."

🍷 Stat of the Day: Constellation Brands, which makes Corona and Modelo beers along with Robert Mondavi and Casa Noble wines, says it expects to book a loss of up to $2.5 billion related to its wine and spirits business last quarter because American wine drinkers and the GIF of Homer Simpson receding into the bushes have a lot in common. The company attributes the projected loss to declining US demand for wine in recent months, which Constellation blamed on macroeconomic challenges like rising unemployment. It marks the latest example of prolonged negative trends in the US wine market, where consumption has declined in each of the past three years.

🤔 Did You Know? Leonardo da Vinci devised experiments to demonstrate that gravity is a form of acceleration, and further modeled the gravitational constant “G” to within 97% accuracy – all of which occurred roughly a century before Galileo Galilei or Sir Isaac Newton first proposed their theories on gravity.

📰 Worth a Read: The bizarre siege behind Stockholm Syndrome → (BBC Culture)