Once upon a time, hosting a podcast meant recording your movie reactions on a $20 microphone in your bedroom.
But those geeky early days are gone: Podcasting is on track to become a $1B business next year, with the biggest players raking in as much as $30m annually.
Now, a bunch of new tech players are trying to bring the Facebook model — gather intel on users, pump out micro-targeted ads — to audio hawks.
As The Markup reports, these companies have sparked controversy:
In response to these issues, some platforms, like Overcast, now let you see which podcasts track you.
Ads were pre-recorded into each episode, so that you’d hear the same ad no matter when or where you listened.
But that started to change in 2014, when a company called Acast offered customized ads based on the date and the listener’s location.
Since then, podcasts have gotten more precise with your data. Analytics companies like Podsights will grab your IP address and device type and track whether you visited, say, Blue Apron’s website after hearing their ad.
Data privacy becomes a bigger question when you think about the big companies creating original podcasts — Amazon, Spotify, and Apple.
Those companies already have a ton of info on you. Spotify can even tell when your phone is in your hand or in your pocket.
Merge that data with your podcast habits, and your late-night Amazon searches for Guy Fieri merch might soon trickle into the ad section on your favorite pod.