The Federal Trade Commission has slapped Cox Media Group and two other companies with a hefty $930,000 fine for misleading businesses about the capabilities of their 'Active Listening' service. The service claimed it could gather consumer voice data from smart devices to target ads, but it turns out they were merely buying email lists.

The FTC’s complaint highlights that none of the claims made by these companies were true, and that at one point, the Active Listening slogan read: “Creepy? Sure. Great for marketing? Definitely.”

CMG and the other companies agreed not to make misrepresentations about their services in the future, promising to be more honest with customers. The fine will be used to compensate businesses who were misled into purchasing the service under false pretenses.

The FTC’s director, Christopher Mufarrige, stated: “It is a basic rule of business that you need to be honest with your customers, and these companies failed to do that.”