Facebook Paid Contractors to Transcribe User Audio Files

Facebook has been paying hundreds of outside contractors to transcribe clips of audio from users of its services, according to Bloomberg, citing people with knowledge of the work.

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

Facebook confirmed that it had been transcribing users’ audio and said it will no longer do so, following scrutiny into other companies. “Much like Apple and Google, we paused human review of audio more than a week ago,“ the company said. Facebook said the users who were affected chose the option in Messenger app to have their voice chats transcribed. The contractors were checking whether Facebook’s AI correctly interpreted the messages, which were anonymized.

Big tech companies 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. 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’s Siri and 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.

Facebook hasn’t disclosed to users that third parties may review their audio. That’s led some contractors to feel their work is unethical, according to the people with knowledge of the matter.  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 “content, communications and other information you provide“ when users “message or communicate with others.“

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. 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’s biggest social network.