Facebook Inc has been paying hundreds of outside contractors to transcribe clips of audio from users of its services, according to people with knowledge of the work.<\/p>\n
The work has rattled the contract employees, who are not told where the audio was recorded or how it was obtained – only to transcribe it, said the people, who requested anonymity for fear of losing their jobs. They\u2019re hearing Facebook users\u2019 conversations, sometimes with vulgar content, but do not know why Facebook needs them transcribed, the people said.<\/p>\n
Facebook confirmed that it had been transcribing users\u2019 audio and said it will no longer do so, following scrutiny into other companies. \u201cMuch like Apple and Google, we paused human review of audio more than a week ago,\u201d the company said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The company said the users who were affected chose the option in Facebook\u2019s Messenger app to have their voice chats transcribed. The contractors were checking whether Facebook\u2019s artificial intelligence correctly interpreted the messages, which were anonymized.<\/p>\n
Big tech companies including Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. have come under fire for collecting audio snippets from consumer computing devices and subjecting those clips to human review, a practice that critics say invades privacy.<\/p>\n
Bloomberg first reported in April that Amazon had a team of thousands of workers around the world listening to Alexa audio requests with the goal of improving the software, and that similar human review was used for Apple\u2019s Siri and Alphabet Inc.\u2019s Google Assistant. Apple and Google have since said they no longer engage in the practice and Amazon said it will let users opt out of human review.<\/p>\n
The social networking giant, which just completed a $5 billion settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission after a probe of its privacy practices, has long denied that it collects audio from users to inform ads or help determine what people see in their news feeds. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg denied the idea directly in Congressional testimony.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re talking about this conspiracy theory that gets passed around that we listen to what\u2019s going on on your microphone and use that for ads,\u201d Zuckerberg told US Senator Gary Peters in April 2018. \u201cWe don\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
In follow-up answers for Congress, the company said it \u201conly accesses users\u2019 microphone if the user has given our app permission and if they are actively using a specific feature that requires audio (like voice messaging features.)\u201d The Menlo Park, California-based company doesn\u2019t address what happens to the audio afterward.<\/p>\n
Shares of Facebook pared gains following the report. The stock was up 1.6% at $188.37 at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in New York, compared with an earlier increase of as much as 3.2%.<\/p>\n
Facebook hasn\u2019t disclosed to users that third parties may review their audio. That\u2019s led some contractors to feel their work is unethical, according to the people with knowledge of the matter.<\/p>\n
At least one firm reviewing user conversations is TaskUs Inc., a Santa Monica, California-based outsourcing firm with outposts around the world, the people said. Facebook is one of TaskUs\u2019s largest and most important clients, but employees aren\u2019t allowed to mention publicly who their work is for. They call the client by the code name \u201cPrism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Facebook also uses TaskUs to review content that\u2019s in possible violation of policies. There are also TaskUs teams working on election preparation and screening political ads, though some of those employees were recently moved to the new transcription team.<\/p>\n
\u201cFacebook asked TaskUs to pause this work over a week ago, and it did,\u201d TaskUs said in response to a request for comment about the transcription work.<\/p>\n
The Facebook data-use policy, revised last year to make it more understandable for the public, includes no mention of audio. It does, however, say Facebook will collect \u201ccontent, communications and other information you provide\u201d when users \u201cmessage or communicate with others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Facebook says its \u201csystems automatically process content and communications you and others provide to analyze context and what\u2019s in them.\u201d It includes no mention of other human beings screening the content.<\/p>\n
In a list of \u201ctypes of third parties we share information with,\u201d Facebook doesn\u2019t mention a transcription team, but vaguely refers to \u201cvendors and service providers who support our business\u201d by \u201canalyzing how our products are used.\u201d<\/p>\n
The role of humans in analyzing recordings underscores the limits of artificial intelligence in its ability to recognize words and speech patterns. Machines are getting better at the task but sometimes still struggle with the unfamiliar.<\/p>\n
That some of the contractors have found the recorded content disturbing is further reminder of the human toll of moderating content on Facebook, the world\u2019s biggest social network.<\/p>\n
Facebook first started allowing Messenger users to have their audio transcribed in 2015. \u201cWe\u2019re always working on ways to make Messenger more useful,\u201d David Marcus, the executive in charge of the service at the time, said in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n