
Microsoft Contractors Listened to Xbox Owners in Their Homes - jbegley
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43kv4q/microsoft-human-contractors-listened-to-xbox-owners-homes-kinect-cortana
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gundmc
<Tech Company> contractors listened to <smart device> recordings

These stories feel like mad libs at this point. I don't personally have a
problem with anonymized recordings being used to improve models, but maybe
these assistants should prompt for affirmative consent whenever they hear a
new voice. "Some recordings may be reviewed by humans for quality assurance
and to improve our services. These recordings are not linked to you or your
identity. Do you accept?"

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Balgair
Call me old fashioned, but someone recording my nephews, without them knowing,
and then selling/giving that recording to just about anyone, is cause for a
bit of concern and possibly a headline. But then again, I may be old
fashioned.

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gundmc
The Xbox case is notably more important because of the disproportionate number
of children using the service and the associated COPPA implications.

But can you provide a source for any of these companies "selling/giving the
recording to just about anyone"? The only stories I have seen involve
contractors working for the company on QA/labelling. It seems like a pretty
gross misrepresentation to imply they're somehow selling or trading voice
recordings.

~~~
Balgair
Per the Amazon Privacy notice [0], they claim that they do not 'sell' your
data. I've not parsed it in detail, but a quick preusal of it does not specify
the sharing of the information of children specifically. Nor does the privacy
notice mention what 'sell' means. Is rental of data included, is lonaing the
data included, what is meant by data, what is meant by secure, what happends
when a contrator just runs off with the data and then sells it?

I've not looked at the policies of the other various 'mic is in the house'
devices, as Amazon's privacy notice is suprisingly readable and short in
comparison (hence why I linked it above).

Suffice to say, there are enough weasel words in these privacy notices that
you agree to that these companies can claim non-liability over just about
anything. Look, I'm not a lawyer and I'm not an expert in these EULA thingys,
but they smell really fishy and I'm pretty sure at this point in the internet
that they are not written for my benefit.

I'm not too pleased with such practices and such an ethos involving personal
conversations of the people that I love and that love me.

If they end up selling the data to just about anyone, I'm not going to be
suprised, just very disappointed in those people and the people that have to
forgive them for trading the (perhaps very personal) conversations of children
and adults for some more numbers on a checking account screen.

[0]
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=468496)

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aussieguy1234
An Xbox was on my list of things to buy, but I think now i'll give it a pass
and choose an alternative console, for the same reason I wont buy an Alexa.

