The US Federal Trade Commission gave final approval to settlements with Cox Media Group, MindSift and 1010 Digital Works over an advertising service they marketed as using artificial intelligence to listen to conversations on smart devices and target local ads. The FTC said the service did not use voice data and that consumers had not agreed to it. The three firms pay $930,000 in total, to be used to refund affected customers, and are barred from similar claims in future.

• $930,000 total
• $880,000 from Cox Media Group
• $25,000 each from two firms
• Commission vote 2-0