SAN FRANCISCO -- Facebook has paid hundreds of contractors to listen to and transcribe snippets of users' conversations, US media reported on Tuesday, amid heightened scrutiny of the social network's data collection practices.
Facebook acknowledged the transcriptions, which were first reported by Bloomberg, telling the news agency in a statement that they were made with users' permission, but that the practice has nonetheless been stopped.
"Much like Apple and Google, we paused human review of audio more than a week ago," the company said.
Facebook did not respond to a request for comment from AFP.
The contractors were testing the ability of the social network's artificial intelligence to interpret messages, and the only users affected were those on Facebook Messenger app who had opted to have their voice chats transcribed.
Bloomberg said the contractors working on the project were "rattled" by listening to private audio whose origin wasn't disclosed and which sometimes contained vulgar content.
The contractors also weren't told the reason why they were doing the transcribing, the news agency reported.
Amazon, Apple and Google -- all companies offering voice assistants -- have previously acknowledged collecting conversations for the purpose of improving their products.
Apple and Google have in recent weeks said they've halted the practice, while Amazon gives users the option of blocking the collection of their voice by Alexa, the artificial intelligence driving their Echo voice assistant.
Facebook, which just settled a record $5 billion fine with the US Federal Trade Commission for misusing users' private data, has given differing responses to reports that it uses audio recordings to better target ads or make its pages more attractive.
"You're talking about this conspiracy theory that gets passed around that we listen to what's going on on your microphone and use that for ads," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in US Senate testimony last year.
"We don't do that," he said.
But the company later told lawmakers in writing that it does actually collect conversations if users have specifically allowed it to do so and are using certain audio features.
The company didn't specify what it did with the audio afterwards.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google have globally suspended reviewing recordings from users interacting with their voice assistants, as concerns over data privacy mount.
Apple said on Friday it had paused the program called "grading," where it reviewed anonymized recordings of conversations people had with its Siri voice assistant.
The decision comes after the Guardian last week reported that the company's contractors tasked with reviewing the recordings regularly heard confidential information and private conversations.
Increased public and political scrutiny of data privacy practices have forced greater transparency from Silicon Valley companies, with Google pausing reviews of audio recordings from its Google assistant service for all purposes in all languages, after a leak of Dutch audio data.
Proposals being weighed by lawmakers in the United States and elsewhere would limit how internet companies track and distribute consumer information as voice assistants such as Siri and Amazon.com Inc's Alexa become a bigger part of people's everyday lives.
"While we conduct a thorough review, we are suspending Siri grading globally," an Apple spokesperson said in a statement, adding that users would be able to opt out of the program in a future software update.
Contractors graded Siri's answers to user queries as part of efforts to perform quality checks, the Guardian reported. They also looked at whether the response was triggered accidentally, the newspaper said.
Users can turn off storing audio data to their Google account completely, or choose to auto-delete data after every 3 months or 18 months, a Google spokesperson told Reuters.
Amazon also said it allows users to opt-out of having their voice recordings used to help develop new Alexa features.
The company will update the information provided to customers to make the practices more clear, an Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Microsoft Corp. did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the status of reviews from its Cortana voice assistant.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Apple Inc said on Friday it suspended its global program where it analyzed recordings from users interacting with its voice assistant Siri, after some privacy concerns were raised about the program.
Apple's decision comes in the light of a report from in Guardian last week which said the company's contractors around the globe tasked with reviewing the recordings regularly heard confidential information and private conversations.
"While we conduct a thorough review, we are suspending Siri grading globally," an Apple spokeswoman said in a statement, adding that in a future software update, users will be able to opt out of the program.
Siri, Apple's iconic voice assistant, allows users to work their iPhone without using their hands, and can send messages, make calls and open multiple applications with voice commands alone.
Consumers have become accustomed to calling out names for popular voice assistants, such as Amazon.com Inc's Alexa, Google Inc's Google Assistant, among others.
In an effort to perform quality checks and improve the voice assistant's responses, contractors graded Siri's answers to user queries, the Guardian reported. They also looked at whether the response was triggered accidentally, without a deliberate query from the user, the newspaper said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
FRANKFURT - A user of Amazon's Alexa voice assistant in Germany got access to more than a thousand recordings from another user because of "a human error" by the company.
The customer had asked to listen back to recordings of his own activities made by Alexa but he was also able to access 1,700 audio files from a stranger when Amazon sent him a link, German trade publication c't reported.
"This unfortunate case was the result of a human error and an isolated single case," an Amazon spokesman said on Thursday.
The first customer had initially got no reply when he told Amazon about the access to the other recordings, the report said. The files were then deleted from the link provided by Amazon but he had already downloaded them on to his computer, added the report from c't, part of German tech publisher Heise.
"We resolved the issue with the 2 customers involved and took measures to further optimize our processes. As a precautionary measure we contacted the relevant authorities", the Amazon spokesman added.
On the recordings, a man and a female companion could be overheard in his home and the magazine was able to identify and contact him through the recorded information, according to the report.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
