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Facebook Admits Contractors Listened in on Messenger Audio Conversations

The company said the practice of tapping into Messenger audio conversations without telling customers has been “paused.”

Facebook has admitted that its contractors regularly listened in on Messenger audio conversations without notifying customers it was doing so. The practice, which Facebook says it “paused” a week ago, affected users who agreed to a service that transcribed voice messages and audio recordings. The contractors involved were tasked with writing their own transcriptions of conversations to test the accuracy of the automatic transcription software, according to the Guardian. Facebook is the fourth major company to admit to electronic eavesdropping by humans. Earlier this year, Amazon admitted that Alexa conversations were monitored for quality assurance, Apple admitted that people to listen into Siri requests to test dictation, and a Google employee leaked more than 1,000 audio clips to a news station in Belgium.