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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US media announced on Tuesday that Facebook had hired hundreds of contractors to listen to and extract audio conversations from its users, during a close examination of the giant's data collection methods. social media.
Facebook has acknowledged the transcripts of the discussions, which the Bloomberg group has first revealed, but told the US press group in a statement that the audience had been authorized by users, but that the practice has been stopped.
"Just like Apple and Google, we stopped reviewing the human voice more than a week ago," the statement said.
Facebook has not responded to a request for comment from AFP.
According to the report, subcontractors tested Facebook's ability to interpret the messages, and only the users concerned were those who used Facebook Messenger and gave permission to copy their voice conversations.
Bloomberg said the contractors working on the project had "taken care" to listen to private discussions, whose identity was not revealed and which sometimes contained obscene content.
She added that the contractors had not been told why they were copying discussions.
Apple, Amazon, Google and other companies working on voice badistance projects have agreed to collect voice conversations to improve their products.
Google and Apple have announced that they have stopped this practice in recent weeks, while Amazon still gives users the option to ban their collection of votes by Alexa, the artificial intelligence program behind the vocal badistant "Eco".
Facebook, which was recently fined $ 5 billion by the US Federal Trade Commission for misusing users' data, gave different answers regarding the use of the 39 audio recording for advertising purposes or to make its pages more attractive.
"You are talking about the circulating conspiracy theory that we listen to what is going on in your microphones and use it for advertising purposes," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a testimonial. last year.
"We do not do that."
But the company then told lawmakers in writing that it was bringing the talks together if the owners allowed it to use certain audio features.
The company did not specify what she had done with the voice conversations thereafter.
AP
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