Facebook Paid Contractors to Transcribe Users’ Audio Messages

[tacobell fan]

Facebook was using “hundreds of outside contractors” to transcribe audio clips from users of its Messenger app.

The company said the users who were affected chose the option in Facebook’s Messenger app to have their voice chats transcribed.

Facebook’s contractors for this job were tasked with validating whether its app was interpreting voice messages accurately, with the clips apparently being anonymized.

Like the Apple contractor that came forward and shared about the sensitive coversations and content heard, anonymous Facebook contractors told Bloomberg that they hear “vulgar content.”

They’re hearing Facebook users’ conversations, sometimes with vulgar content, but do not know why Facebook needs them transcribed, the people said.

The company told Bloomberg that it indeed was having humans review audio clips from Facebook Messenger but stopped the practice very recently.

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 noted that it stopped using contractors to transcribe audio because of the pressure Apple, Google, and Amazon have recently seen over the same practice.

Under a week after a report from the Guardian detailed Apple’s use of contractors to listen and gradeless than 1% of Siri activations, the company suspended the program and noted that in the future it will be an option, not a default.

[r2d2]

19 minutes ago, tacobell fan said:

They’re hearing Facebook users’ conversations, sometimes with vulgar content, but do not know why Facebook needs them transcribed, the people said.