A Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement: “A few months ago, for the purpose of product improvement, we stopped reviewing any voice content recorded through the Xbox because we thought it was no longer necessary and we did not start again. The plan for these reviews.”
Editor’s note: This article is from “Tencent Technology”, reviewing the Golden Deer, authorized to reprint.
According to foreign media reports, some media broke the news that Microsoft contractors are listening to user conversations on video game consoles. After the news came out, Microsoft announced that it would stop listening to the audio of Xbox One gamers and said the move was “no longer necessary.”
There was a media report that as early as 2014, Microsoft was always recording and monitoring private conversations with gamers, many of whom were children. Microsoft said that this is to improve the voice command function on the game console. At the same time, other technology companies such as Facebook have also been exposed to listening to users’ chats.
The Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement: “A few months ago, for the purpose of product improvement, we stopped reviewing any voice content recorded through Xbox, because we think it is no longer necessary, we also There are no plans to restart these reviews.”
The statement also states: “When there are reports that the monitor violates our Terms of Service, we occasionally review a small number of voice recordings sent from one Xbox user to another, and we need to investigate. To ensure the security of the Xbox community, this is clearly stated in our Xbox Terms of Service.”
The Xbox One has been using voice commands since its release in 2013, first through the Kinect camera, and then through the headset to order Microsoft’s personal assistant Cortana. These commands can be used to control the game console or to issue commands in the game. Cortana will be removed from Xbox One in the next update of the console.
Like most voice-activated technologies, Xbox commands are triggered by code phrases (“Xbox on” or “嘿Cortana”) before recording. However, the contractor revealed that speech recognition is often erroneously triggered when a player is chatting in a game or talking at home.
The background of Microsoft’s cessation of this practice is voiceActivating Smart Assist listens to users without their knowledge and large technology companies are using contractors to review audio, and are receiving more and more attention.
In April, the media revealed that technology giants such as Amazon, Google and Apple hired human contractors to listen to their voice recordings from their smart speakers and voice assistant applications. Many customers are not aware of this practice.
It has been reported that Microsoft employees have also listened to many Skype calls and audio recorded by their virtual assistant Cortana. Facebook, Google and Apple are all committed to stopping this practice, while Amazon allows users to opt out.
This week, Facebook announced a new privacy tool called “Clear History.” This tool allows people to view Facebook users’ tools to track them on the Internet, which is why you always see ads on other websites that you see on Instagram and Facebook. In addition, the tool allows people to “disconnect” activities from their accounts, but this does not remove any information from Facebook’s servers.
Microsoft said: “We have always been very clear that we collect voice data to improve voice support services, which are sometimes reviewed by vendors. We recently updated our privacy statement to explain more clearly, people This data is sometimes reviewed as part of the product improvement process. Before collecting voice data, we always get permission from the customer, and we take steps to remove the voice clips being reviewed to protect people’s privacy. We ask for this data. Processing maintains the highest legal privacy standards.”