The Voice Catchers: How Marketers Listen In to Exploit Your Feelings, Your Privacy, and Your Wallet

by Joseph Turow

Your voice as biometric data, and how marketers are using it to manipulate you Only three decades ago, it was inconceivable that virtually entire populations would be carrying around wireless phones wherever they went, or that peoples’ exact locations could be tracked by those devices. We now take both for granted. Even just a decade ago the idea that individuals’ voices could be used to identify and draw inferences about them as they shopped or interacted with retailers seemed like something out of a science fiction novel. Yet a new business sector is emerging to do exactly that.   The first in-depth examination of the voice intelligence industry, The Voice Catchers exposes how artificial intelligence is enabling personalized marketing and discrimination through voice analysis. Amazon and Google have numerous patents pertaining to voice profiling, and even now their smart speakers are extracting and using voice prints for identification and more. Customer service centers are already approaching every caller based on what they conclude a caller’s voice reveals about that person’s emotions, sentiments, and personality, often in real time. In fact, many scientists believe that a person’s weight, height, age, and race, not to mention any illnesses they may have, can also be identified from the sound of that individual’s voice. Ultimately not only marketers, but also politicians and governments, may use voice profiling to infer personal characteristics for selfish interests and not for the benefit of a citizen or of society as a whole.   Leading communications scholar Joseph Turow places the voice intelligence industry in historical perspective, explores its contemporary developments, and offers a clarion call for regulating this rising surveillance regime.

Genres: Business, Technology, Audiobook, Nonfiction, History, Psychology

345 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 18, 2021

Reviews

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty good. The main idea is that companies like Amazon and Google are currently convincing people to adopt smart speakers and other voice technology by keeping prices low and providing lots of useful functionality. However, once people are locked in and more comfortable with using voice technology, they will start to exploit the data captured and use it for marketing and targeting purposes. This could include promotions based on what people say (whether we know the device is listening or not), as well as analyzing people’s intonation and texture to gauge how angry, persuadable, etc. they are and decide who should get different promotions. I read the book because I didn’t know much about this landscape and despite being it somewhat dismissive about the benefits the technology can bring, it was a good overview.

[Sloane Sylling]

This book wasn’t exactly fun to read or an easy read…but I stuck with it and I now believe it’s an important read. The already-happening biases, racism, misogyny, and more in voice recording and surveillance technology is astounding and will only get more troublesome if real work and laws aren’t made to counteract it.

[Turquoise · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very informative - perhaps at times too informative - book about the challenges that voice assistants pose for privacy and inequality (e.g., through discriminatory practices they can advance).

It is unclear who the intended audience is. It would be important to have this kind of a book for general readership, but at times the book gets into too much detail for that. Yes, it's important to have some of the historical background documented, but it's doubtful most readers concerned about voice assistants' current social implications will want that material at the level of detail this book offers. But it is also not a scientific book since there does not seem to be any original research, it is more of a summary of the state of affairs. The author occasionally refers to having conducted interviews, but there is no material that discusses this. (I listened to the audio, I wonder if the book has an appendix with methodological information somewhere that was not included.) Ultimately, neither the audience nor the genre is clear, which is a bit confusing.

The book offers important context for just how much information voice assistants collect about users of such devices, which at this point is most people given the ubiquity of such devices. That is, even if you don't use them directly (e.g., don't own a home voice assistant), chances are some friends you visit do and then your voice gets captured there. Importantly, when you call a service, their "this call is recorded for quality assurance" encompasses their right to use your voice for technical training purposes so it's extremely hard to opt out entirely. The book offers helpful policy suggestions at the end although these are unlikely to materialize especially in the US.

[Shay]

The Voice Catchers is a more academic read, by a professor of communication studies whose work has focused on retail surveillance. Turow is known for his work on resignation and the failure of informed consent in marketing, the idea that consumers give up their private data to marketing companies not willingly but rather because they are resigned to the idea that it is futile to try to protect their privacy. In The Voice Catchers, Turow makes a convincing argument that we are currently in the habituation stage with voice technologies, in which the tech companies are focused on getting consumers accustomed to the ease and convenience of using them. Seductive personalization emphasizes personal utility while working hard to downplay anything that might feel creepy or invasive. However, Turow argues that this phase will almost certainly give way to more overt marketing once users are habituated to the convenience of interacting with voice technology in their day-to-day lives. more

[Clarence Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

ReedIII Quick Review: If you are concerned (freaked out) that your Google or Amazon voice assistant is capturing (stealing) your voice for commercial (nefarious) use, this book will fuel your concerns (fears). Written in 2021 presents in depth timely information past, present & future on the use of the biometric that is your voice.

[Keenan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dense read, but worth reading. Interesting record of how companies are looking at voice biometrics as "the next big thing" in advertising.

[Jolynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

10 minute podcast inspired by my reading of this book. With Bob Sullivan - https://redtape.substack.com/p/before...

[K.Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Am I terrified? yes ✅
Have I unplugged all of my google homes? Yes ✅
Will I recommend this book to anyone I talk to for longer than 15 minutes? Also yes ✅