It’s the fifth big tech company forced to admit to the practice this year.
The news: Facebook paid contractors to listen to, and transcribe, audio clips generated by people using its Messenger app, according to Bloomberg. They were not told where the clips were recorded, or how they were obtained, and the conversations were sometimes deeply personal. The contractors were employed to check if Facebook’s artificial intelligence software correctly interpreted the messages, which the company says were not traceable back to users. Facebook suspended the program a little over a week ago, a spokesperson told Bloomberg.
Déjà vu: This story follows almost identical revelations about Amazon in April, Google and Apple in July, and Microsoft earlier this month. In each case, the companies didn’t disclose the practice to users. Most of them have since suspended it, pending investigations.
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