Facebook let hundreds of third-party contractors listen to snippets of user recordings, various insiders have said. The contractors were told to transcribe users’ conversations, but did not learn the purpose of their work nor how Facebook obtained the audio recordings. Last month, whistleblowers revealed similar practices at Apple and Google.
The Irish Data Protection Commission, which monitors Facebook’s activities in Europe, announced that it was launching an investigation into the matter to see if Facebook has violated the EU’s privacy laws. Facebook confirmed the practice of transcribing user audio and said that “much like Apple and Google, we paused human review of audio more than a week ago.”
Read more: Facebook Paid Contractors to Transcribe Users’ Audio Chats