United Kingdom, May 26 -- Cox Media has been fined to settle allegations they lied about spying on users.

The company, along with marketing firms MindSift and 1010 Digital Works, have been find a total of $930,000 in a settlement over the allegations, having claimed they could secretly listen to users via their phones and smart devices.

In a bizarre twist, Cox's Voice Data system - which it publicly bragged about in 2023 - has come under fire for not actually being able to do what it claimed.

At the time, Cox told potential digital marketing clients that they could make sure "every casual conversation between two consumers becomes a tool for you to target, retarget, and retain customers".

The company itself compared the tech to someth...