By Carlos Winston | January 18, 2020

When you thought it was safe for your kids to play Xbox video games, the word is out; they’ve been listening in on your household.

Nowadays, devices of all shapes and uses come with some microphone or camera attached. Many would assume that privacy in the modern world is pretty much non-existent, especially when considering the value of our personal information to large companies.

This controversial topic puts consumers at odds with companies that they use and trust because of the current dynamics of data security. While Microsoft contractors were working on some voice command improvements for the Xbox, they caught ear audio from console users inside their homes.

If you didn’t already know, Microsoft has a voice command assistant very similar to Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri. A common trait of virtual assistants, in general, is that they have to listen out for wake up commands to activate without the use of gestures or button presses. For Microsoft, functionalities like this have been available to the public since 2013, when the Kinect was released for the Xbox 360. Around that time, Microsoft stated that there were many security measures put in place to keep privacy within user homes.

Why did they listen in without permission? Microsoft claims, ‘This is done to keep the Xbox community safe and is clearly stated in our Xbox terms of service.’

A Microsoft spokesperson told Motherboard in an email that the company recently stopped listening to Xbox audio to improve Microsoft products.

“We stopped reviewing any voice content taken through Xbox for product improvement purposes a number of months ago, as we no longer felt it was necessary, and we have no plans to re-start those reviews,” the spokesperson wrote. “We occasionally review a low volume of voice recordings sent from one Xbox user to another when there are reports that a recording violated our terms of service and we need to investigate. This is done to keep the Xbox community safe and is clearly stated in our Xbox terms of service.”

“We’ve long been clear that we collect voice data to improve voice-enabled services and that this data is sometimes reviewed by vendors,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in an additional statement. (Microsoft did not explicitly say humans may review audio recordings from its products in its privacy policy until after Motherboard’s earlier reporting on Skype and Cortana).

“We’ve recently updated our privacy statement to add greater clarity that people sometimes review this data as part of the product improvement process,” the company added. “We always get customer permission before collecting voice data, we take steps to de-identify voice snippets being reviewed to protect people’s privacy, and we require that handling of this data be held to the highest privacy standards in the law. At the same time, we’re actively working on additional steps we can take to give customers more transparency and more control over how their data is used to improve products.” [Vice]

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The workers that were employed under this contractor were supposed to handle different voice commands in a specific manner. The audio recordings were to be divided and sorted based on the type of command it was. Cortana’s response was also recorded and sorted to measure the accuracy of the AI’s response.

The individuals listening to the recordings frequently heard users who had accidentally triggered Cortana’s, but as time went on and improvements were made within the software, this happened less often. Cortana has been removed from the Xbox console, and any recording used had been for the development of its mobile phone applications.

As of now, Microsoft no longer feels it is necessary to review voice recordings to make improvements to their products. The only audio that is revised are ones that are sent between users and have been reported because of potential break-in terms of service. Other companies have made similar moves after massive media outbursts on the subject.

They tell us they aren’t listening, but how can that be proven? Maybe it’s time to boycott Microsoft. What are your feelings about that?

 

This piece originally appeared on WayneDupree.com and is used by permission.

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