Microsoft contractors have reportedly listened to intimate Skype conversations

If you've ever had Skype conversations using the service's translator, there's a chance parts of it were listened to by Microsoft contractors, a new report from Motherboard suggests.

The report cites "internal documents, screenshots, and audio recordings" that show Microsoft contractors sometimes listen into private Skype conversations that use the translation service in order to improve the feature, with some of the audio Motherboard reviewed including "conversations from people talking intimately to loved ones, some chatting about personal issues such as their weight loss, and others seemingly discussing relationship problems." The clips the outlet looked at were usually between five and 10 seconds long, but they can be longer, the report says.

The contractor who leaked this information told Motherboard, "Some stuff I've heard could clearly be described as phone sex."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

While the report notes that Microsoft tells users that voice data will be used to improve services, it isn't made clear that humans will manually listen to Skype audio. Microsoft in a statement said that it "gets customers’ permission before collecting and using their voice data" and that its FAQ makes clear that voice data will be listened to.

The report also suggests that humans are reviewing Cortana voice commands as well, which follows similar reports suggesting the same is true of Google's Assistant, Amazon's Alexa, and Apple's Siri. Apple and Google suspended this human review last week. The contractor told Motherboard addresses could sometimes be heard from the Cortana command audio.

"The fact that I can even share some of this with you shows how lax things are in terms of protecting user data," the contractor said. Read the full report at Motherboard.