Facebook Paid Contractors to Transcribe Messenger Voice Chats

[MacRumors]

Facebook paid "hundreds of outside contractors" to transcribe user audio clips from its Messenger app, reports Bloomberg.

Employees who worked on the transcription were not told where the audio was recorded or how it was obtained, nor were they told why Facebook needs conversations transcribed.

Facebook says that while it had indeed been transcribing audio, it no longer plans to do so. "We paused human review of audio more than a week ago," Facebook told Bloomberg.

Facebook's decision to pause its audio transcribing comes following scrutiny of human review programs from Apple, Amazon, and Google. The three companies use employees to review voice assistant requests and accidental activations for improvement purposes.

One firm that Facebook uses to transcribe Messenger conversations is TaskUs, a company that also reviews Facebook content for possible policy violations.

Facebook says that users who had voice chats transcribed had opted in, and that the transcriptions were used to make sure Facebook's AI correctly interpreted the messages. Despite this, Facebook did not disclose to users that third parties may be reviewing audio, which led some of Facebook's contractors to "feel their work is unethical."

Facebook's data use policy does mention the collection of "content, communications, and other information," but there's no specific mention of audio.

Facebook says its "systems automatically process content and communications you and others provide to analyze context and what's in them." It includes no mention of other human beings screening the content. In a list of "types of third parties we share information with," Facebook doesn't mention a transcription team, but vaguely refers to "vendors and service providers who support our business" by "analyzing how our products are used."

While Facebook claims it has stopped the audio transcription program, those concerned should refrain from using Facebook services like Messenger and WhatsApp.

Google and Apple have temporarily suspended their human audio review programs, while Amazon is letting Alexa users opt out. In the future, when Apple re-implements human review of Siri queries, there will be a clear privacy policy and opt-out option.

Article Link: Facebook Paid Contractors to Transcribe Messenger Voice Chats

 

[dominiongamma]

Facebook getting more creepier everyday

 

[handsome421]

Facebook: "Yeah you know that totally invasive, unethical, privacy-denying stuff that we were doing just a minute ago? Yeah we're totally not doing that anymore and you're actually not 'dumb *****' for trusting us like Mark Zuckerberg, our provably-human CEO said."

 

[konqerror]

Wait till the media finds out about medical transcriptionists...

 

[iPhysicist]

Yeah it’s like to opt in to get burglarized.

 

[Rob_2811]

Least shocking news story of the week, we have a winner.

 

[ersan191]

This is the only known way to make speech to text more accurate...

 

[velocityg4]

You could have knocked me over with a feather. Imagine Facebook the stalwart of privacy. Getting caught up in some privacy scandal.

 

[urgs]

I understand, why you have to transcribe audio recordings to improve a voice recognition system like Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant.

But why does Facebook transcribe voice chats? Despite of some unethical things I see no legitimation for Facebook to do that.

 

[Mike MA]

The s*** hit he fan? No, people already know what FB does and will continue using it.

 

[coolbreeze]

Example # 397 of Facebook having zero respect for personal information.

But guyz, this is a one-off misunderstanding, promise! Sure thing bub.

Seriously, delete your effing account already. That place is beyond toxic and frankly dangerous.

 

[urgs]

This is the only known way to make speech to text more accurate...

Voice Chat is pure voice. No text conversion is involved.
For Speech-to-Text, all platforms offer APIs for that. There is no need for Facebook to collect their own dataset. But if they want to monetarize this data...

 

[jontech]

Lost me at Bloomberg

 

[Kaibelf]

It's interesting to see lots of tech message boards in which the same people flip on contractors. When it's a story about Uber and Lyft, it's always about how these people should be considered full employees and get benefits and unions because they are good people who are being held out by mean companies.

When it's a story about Amazon, Apple, Facebook or Google suddenly the contractors are no-account awful people who are out to skirt accountability and can't be trusted because they aren't the real thing, and they are secretly using your information and voice to steal your identity or eavesdrop on your marriage.

Strange times we live in, for sure.

 

[DrJohnnyN]

Oh, Mark...

 

[matt_and_187_like_this]

This is the only known way to make speech to text more accurate...

The only way to make speech to text more accurate is to forward voice chats of actual consumers without their consent, without their knowledge even, to some private contractors outside of the company the consumers are registered on.

Ok.

 

[78Bandit]

I bet that option was buried inside a 1,000 page disclosure and more likely than not the users simply didn't "opt out" rather than knowingly "opt in".

 

[konqerror]

The only way to make speech to text more accurate is to forward voice chats of actual consumers without their consent, without their knowledge even, to some private contractors outside of the company the consumers are registered on.

Users did consent in all these cases. It was in the terms and conditions. People just clicked through without reading. And private contractors don't matter, your medical records are routinely transcribed by a private contractor.

 

[Apple Freak]

So glad I left that platform and related ones.

 

[jona2125]

So glad I left that platform and related ones.

Apple does it to, I run two divisions that do this.

 

[hagjohn]

Users did consent in all these cases. It was in the terms and conditions. People just clicked through without reading. And private contractors don't matter, your medical records are routinely transcribed by a private contractor.

There are laws protecting your medical records and Facebook seems to have no laws they can follow.

 

[MacsRgr8]

When the s*** hits he fan? No, people already know what FB does and will continue using it.

Exactly. Everyone's on about privacy, but when it comes to Facebook most users just shrug their shoulders...

BTW.. it's not just the technical / security / legal part of Facebook that makes me avoid it, but also the way most of those users act on Facebook. It's unbelievable what normal folk post on it. Talk about giving up on privacy all together...

 

[AustinIllini]

you don't say

 

[baryon]

Hello fellow Humans! It is me, Mark Zuckerberg!
We are happy to announce that as of yesterday, we have put our Privacy Violating Practices™ temporarily on hold, so all is well! Please continue to use Messenger Audio Messages™, and rest assured that no Human will be listening in on them (including me, obviously)! Please also speak clearly and slowly to ensure that your Friends™ can hear you.
C:\dev\file.c(467) : error C2143: syntax error : missing ';' before 'type'

 

[rk-apple]

If Google, Apple, and Facebook want to improve voice to text AI transcription, why not just have a simple option for a user to flag a poor transcription and (completely of their own volition) ‘submit for transcription review’. That’s all that’s really needed in my opinion.