Facebook Was Transcribing Its Users’ Conversations, for Some Reason
Facebook is, once again, facing a scandal over user data. On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that the company had paid hundreds of contractors to transcribe its users' audio recordings. The contractors hired to work on the transcriptions don't know how the audio was recorded or obtained, but they told Bloomberg they're "hearing Facebook users’ conversations, sometimes with vulgar content, but do not know why Facebook needs them transcribed."
When Bloomberg reached out to Facebook for comment, the company replied that, coincidentally, it had just stopped the practice:
Facebook confirmed that it had been transcribing users’ audio and said it will no longer do so. "We paused human review of audio more than a week ago," the company said Tuesday. The company said the users who were affected chose the option in Facebook’s Messenger app to have their voice chats transcribed. The contractors were checking whether Facebook’s artificial intelligence correctly interpreted the messages, which were anonymized.
The anonymous contractors who spoke to Bloomberg said that transcribing these conversations made them uncomfortable, but they didn't speak up for fear of losing their jobs. They also didn't know why Facebook needed the recordings, and the company didn't provide detail in response to the story. In April, Bloomberg also reported that Amazon workers were similarly reviewing recordings collected by Alexa, the company's widely used virtual assistant, in an effort to improve voice-activation software.
Facebook has struggled in recent years with its handling of personal data, from the revelation that the platform was saving video recording whenever users opened their phone's camera using the Facebook app to the Cambridge Analytica scandal wherein the Trump presidential campaign got a hold of the data for 50 million Facebook users.
This latest revelation comes just after Facebook had to pay a $5 billion fine to the Federal Trade Commission for failing to protect its users' data, a fine so small that the company's stock went up after it was announced. On Wednesday, Ireland's Data Protection Commission, Facebook's lead regulator in the European Union, announced that it was seeking more information in how Facebook obtained and stored these recordings. According to Canada's CBC, the Data Protection Commission has already opened eight separate probes into Facebook, plus three more into WhatsApp and Instagram, both of which Facebook owns.
Originally Appeared on GQ
