Leak detects Microsoft by tapping on Xbox discussions

According to a report, Microsoft has hired employees to listen to sound recordings of home-based Xbox users to enhance the platform's speech recognition capabilities.

Motherboard stated that the voice heard by the subcontractors was supposed to be recorded after the Xbox or Hey Coratna voice command, but the subcontractors said that the recordings sometimes started and were recorded in error.

The report is the latest in a series of leaks indicating that Microsoft has hired people to listen to the sound recorded with many of its products. Motherboard has previously indicated that Microsoft has allowed subcontractors to indiscreetly listen to certain Skype messaging calls, as well as the voice recorded by the Cortana Digital Assistant.

"The Xbox's orders came as a cacophony, then they became half of what we were doing, before becoming the bulk of what we were doing," a former contractor working for Microsoft told Motherboard .

The former contractor said it had worked on Xbox sound recordings from 2014 to 2015, before Microsoft assists its digital assistant Cortana on the platform in 2016. The Xbox One platform was launched in November from 2013 with the ability to control by voice commands via Kinect system (Kinect).

When some users became aware of Kinect's ability to listen to Xbox 360 users and were worried about it, Microsoft said the Kinect system for the Xbox 360 – formerly Xbox One – was designed and built with protection. enhanced confidentiality, and that the new Kinect system would be maintained. Commitment. Then, in 2016, Microsoft took over support for receiving voice commands via Cortana.

Microsoft removed Cortana from the Xbox in July, but the PDA is still able to control the gaming platform with its own applications on Android and iOS.

On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that it had updated its privacy policy to inform its customers that it was collecting voice data for its users with the help of its employees and external contractors. The goal was to enable him to offer voice services on both Skype and Cortana.

Among the technology companies, Microsoft is the latest to recognize such practices, after media reported that Facebook was paying subcontractors for the audio copy of the users of its services.

In the United States, lawmakers and regulators widely criticize the privacy practices of technology companies, particularly because they allow humans to listen to highly personal information.