CConspiracy theorists of the world, rip off your tinfoil hats and take a bow: You were (sort of) right. While pretty much everyone has a story where they were chatting about something and then an ad for that something popped up on their device, the idea that your phone is actively listening to you has long been dismissed as silly. After all, brands don’t need to eavesdrop in this way—they already have access to millions of data points that build a detailed picture of your habits and likely purchases.

But just because brands are not need Being allowed to listen in on your conversations doesn’t mean there aren’t companies out there coming up with new, sinister ways to tap into your data. 404 Media, a technology-focused news site, recently received a pitch deck from Cox Media Group (CMG) touting its “active listening” software, which targets ads based on what people say near their device microphones. The presentation doesn’t specify whether this voice data comes from smart TVs, smart speakers, or smartphones, but the slide extolling “the power of the voice (and our devices’ microphones)” features an image of people looking at their phones.

I won’t make the predictable Black Mirror reference, because CMG has already done that. When 404 Media reported on Active Listening last year, CMG’s website featured the following (now deleted) blurb: “What would it mean… if you could target prospective customers who were actively talking about their need for your services in their everyday conversations? No, it’s not a Black Mirror episode—it’s about voice data.”

It’s hard to say how widespread this service is, but CMG’s deck lists Facebook, Google, and Amazon as its partners — though that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve partnered on this particular technology. Amazon, in turn, has said it has never worked with CMG, and Google removed CMG from its affiliate program following the 404 report. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, said it was investigating whether CMG violated its terms of service. While many details are still unclear, one thing is clear: privacy died a long time ago. For some advertisers, nothing is off limits — there have even been experiments with “targeted dream incubation” to brand your dreams. The future is a meticulously personalized, highly targeted nightmare.

Arwa Mahdawi is a columnist at the Guardian