Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls

boredsecenthusiast · Aug 17, 2019

guest said: ↑

And you believe everything that companies state?
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The question here is not about me believing in this or not? The question here is about unethical business practice which unfortunately many business are guilty of after they are caught.

Anyways, there is no benefit in crying over split milk. Next time I will be more take more precautionary measure.

Minor edit: changed ethical to unethical

boredsecenthusiast · Aug 17, 2019

boredsecenthusiast said: ↑

Anyway, I am deleting skype account I think this is the end of Skype
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Just done with deleting skype account. For people who are interested in deleting skype account here is a complete guide:

https://www.purevpn.com/internet-privacy/how-to-delete-skype-account

guest · Aug 17, 2019

i think you miss the point of using human, how come would you perfect a voice recognition mechanism by not using voice samples from the users (which is the most effective and less costly way)? let me guess? gather people in a dark room, touching each other fingers extremities and summoning ghosts so they can speak? after all ghost are dead , they dont care about privacy..

guest · Aug 21, 2019

Microsoft Contractors Listened to Xbox Owners in Their Homes
Multiple contractors working for Microsoft explain how they listened to audio captured by Xbox consoles
August 21, 2019
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/...-listened-to-xbox-owners-homes-kinect-cortana

Contractors working for Microsoft have listened to audio of Xbox users speaking in their homes in order to improve the console’s voice command features, Motherboard has learned. The audio was supposed to be captured following a voice command like “Xbox” or “Hey Cortana,” but contractors said that recordings were sometimes triggered and recorded by mistake.
The former contractor was paid $10 an hour for their work, according to an employment document shared with Motherboard.

"Most of the Xbox related stuff I can recall doing was obviously unintentional activations with people telling Cortana 'No' as they were obviously in the middle of a game and doing normal game chat," the current contractor said.

The former contractor said they were told not to talk to people about what they were doing at work, "I recall explicitly being told 'you probably shouldn’t mention it was for Microsoft' during the hiring process."
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guest · Jan 10, 2020

Microsoft contractors in China listened to Skype recordings with woefully bad levels of cybersecurity, report reveals
January 10, 2020
https://www.businessinsider.de/inte...d-to-recordings-with-minimal-security-2020-1/

Microsoft contractors working in China were able to listen to people’s Skype conversations and Cortana recordings through a system woefully lacking in cybersecurity, the Guardian reports.

An anonymous Microsoft contractor who worked out of Beijing for years told the Guardian that he was able to listen to recordings of users with practically „no security measures.“ The contractor’s work involved listening to short audio clips from Skype conversations and instructions given to Cortana (Microsoft’s voice-assistant) to grade them for quality.

„They just give me a login over email and I will then have access to Cortana recordings,“ he told the Guardian. „I could then hypothetically share this login with anyone.“
The contractor was able to listen to incredibly sensitive audio recording through this system.
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The Guardian: Skype audio graded by workers in China with 'no security measures'

Workers had no cybersecurity help to protect the data from criminal or state interference, and were even instructed to do the work using new Microsoft accounts all with the same password, for ease of management, the former contractor said. Employee vetting was practically nonexistent, he added.

An experimental feature enabling live text translation of Skype calls was vetted by humans, Vice revealed, raising the prospects of individuals making sensitive calls without knowing that their conversations were effectively bugged. Microsoft disclosed to users that the company might “analyse audio” of calls, but not that it would be playing them to human workers.
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guest · Jan 10, 2020

Microsoft says it now uses ‘secure facilities’ to review some Skype audio
January 10, 2020
https://www.idownloadblog.com/2020/01/10/microsoft-skype-audio-recording-secure-report/

The Guardian has a report out today that details how Skype audio calls are graded by individuals in China without “security measures” in place. In response to that report, Microsoft counters with the claim that Skype audio calls are now graded in “secure facilities in a small number of countries”.

A spokesperson for Microsoft responded to The Verge and said that the recorded audio is just “snippets”, and measure ten seconds or shorter. The spokesperson said that no contractor would have access to any audio recordings longer than that, adding, “If there is questionable behavior or possible violation by one of our suppliers, we investigate and take action”.
The Microsoft spokesperson went on:

We’ve always disclosed this to customers and operate to the highest privacy standards set out in laws like Europe’s GDPR.
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In a statement to The Verge, Microsoft had this to say:

As a result, we’ve updated our privacy statement to be even more clear about this work, and since then we’ve significantly enhanced the process including by moving these reviews to secure facilities in a small number of countries. We will continue to take steps to give customers greater transparency and control over how we manage their data.
So, Microsoft says the recordings are now graded in “secure facilities” across the globe, so it’s certainly possible this former contractor was doing things incorrectly and against Microsoft’s policies. Still, it’s a worrying report that maybe things haven’t changed all that much from last year.
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Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls

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