Facebook Downplayed a Report on Contractors Transcribing Audio Clips From Its Users

The since-halted initiative was opt-in only, and audio was masked to protect identities

Facebook took steps to downplay a report by Sarah Frier of Bloomberg that it has been paying outside contractors to transcribe audio clips from its users.

A Facebook spokesperson said, “Much like Apple and Google, we paused human review of audio more than a week ago.”

The social network insisted that it never listened to people via the microphones on their devices without device permission and explicit activation by the device owners.

The company added that the practice of reviewing non-public audio was commonplace in the industry until earlier this month, when Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple ceased the practice.

According

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