Facebook let contractors listen to audio recordings from users

Facebook was listening. Sort of. 

It turns out the company that only recently made a performative pivot toward privacy was paying contractors to listen to and transcribe users' conversations, according to Bloomberg.

Notably, the contractors reportedly did not know how Facebook obtained the audio and weren't informed as to why it needed to be transcribed. Allegedly, the recordings included "vulgar content" — although the specifics of what that means is unclear. 

The audio in question reportedly came from the Facebook Messenger app, and was part of a process to check if the company's AI correctly transcribed conversations between users. Facebook insisted to Bloomberg that a person would have needed to select the transcription option for their conversations to have been sent to humans for review.  Read more...