Facebook Admits To Spying On Users Through Third-Party Audio Logs

Facebook is determined to become the world’s most deceptive company. Thanks to an investigative report from Bloomberg, tech insiders revealed the social media giant was paying hundreds of third-party contractors to transcribe audio clips from its own users, contrary to the platform’s numerous statements of denial regarding internal surveillance. It was only when they were caught red-handed did Facebook confirm these suspicions as legitimate.

“Much like Apple and Google, we paused human review of audio more than a week ago,” the company said in a Tuesday email, indicating it’s been halted on a temporary basis. Even still, the company continued to justify its actions by claiming the affected users actually chose to be surveilled through the Messenger app, a technicality based on users only agreeing to have their audio transcribed, which is meant to be conducted through the platform’s known A.I. systems, not some unknown third-party contractors freely given information via Facebook admins.

In a follow-up statement to Vice News, the company’s spokesperson claimed the company “totally de-identified audio snippets” and only used them to “improve AI transcription of messages from people who had opted into transcription on Messenger.” Forgive me if I don’t immediately sign onto the possible lies from big tech’s…