Yes, Microsoft entrepreneurs listened to your Xbox voice commands

According to a new report, Microsoft had actually invited humans to listen to occasional Xbox voice commands. This was intended to improve speech recognition software in Microsoft products, but this practice has sometimes led some contractors to record game-specific recordings. Subcontractors working for Microsoft to listen to recorded music from voice recognition have revealed that this included audio from the Xbox consoles. The audio from the Xbox was collected by both Kinect and later when the Xbox integrated Cortana AI from Microsoft.

"Honestly, things on the Xbox were actually a little welcome respite," an unnamed subcontractor from Microsoft told Motherboard. "It was often the same games. Same DLC. Same type of commands. "These commands were apparently Xbox-like queries" "Xbox gives me all the games for free" or "Xbox Download" [newest Minecraft skins pack]Or something else. Contractors were paid $ 10 an hour for this job.

Top 25 IGN Games on Xbox One

There were sometimes voice recordings that were more specific to a certain game. "Sometimes I heard" Xbox, tell Solas to heal ", or something similar that would be a command for Dragon Age: Inquisition" , revealed the former subcontractor. Subcontractors also listened to voice recordings when services such as Cortana were inadvertently triggered by players.

Microsoft told the motherboard: "Several months ago, we stopped reviewing any voice content taken on Xbox for product enhancement purposes because we no longer thought it was necessary and we did not want it. had not intended to re-launch those exams. "Microsoft also removed Cortana from the Xbox's home screen earlier this year.

Microsoft still examines a "low volume of voice recordings sent by an X

If you report that a record has violated our Terms of Use and that we must investigate, Microsoft states however that it is a security measure clearly stated in the conditions of use of the Xbox.

The company has also updated its privacy statement to ensure that all users of Microsoft and Xbox services know that Microsoft examines voice data and processes personal date using "automated and manual (human) processing methods". ). " Microsoft page allowing users to delete audio data captured by a Microsoft product.

The report comes at a time when personal data collected by companies such as Google, Amazon and Facebook is generating renewed interest, each with audio assistant technologies such as Siri and Alexa that respond and can record audio data from users.

Although there are questions about the type of audio captured by Cortana AI from Microsoft, it seems that the audio captured on the Xbox is largely related to video games. Although you never know what may have been accidentally logged if you mistakenly triggered your Kinect or Cortana AI service.

Matt Kim is a journalist for IGN. You can reach him on Twitter.