Microsoft contractors have been listening to Skype calls — including personal conversations and even phone sex — made through the app’s translation function, according to a report Wednesday.
據週三的一份報告稱，微軟承包商一直在收聽Skype的電話，包括通過Skype的翻譯功能進行的個人對話，甚至是電話性愛。
Skype warns its users that some conversations may be analyzed to improve its services, though it doesn’t make clear that the calls will be reviewed by actual humans, Vice’s Motherboard reported.
據Vice的Motherboard欄目報道，Skype警告用戶，為改進其服務質量，可能會對某些通話進行分析，但它並沒有明確表示這些通話將由真實的工作人員進行審查。
The privacy policy of Microsoft, which acquired Skype for $8.5 billion in 2011, also doesn’t mention this.
2011年以85億美元收購Skype的微軟隱私政策中，也沒有提到這一點。
Motherboard received five- to 10-second-long portions of some audio, in which callers are chatting about weight loss, loved ones and relationship issues.
Motherboard欄目收到了一些五到十秒長的音頻片段，其中打電話的人正在談論減肥、親人和關係問題。
“The fact that I can even share some of this with you shows how lax things are in terms of protecting user data,” a Microsoft contractor told the tech site. “Some stuff I’ve heard could clearly be described as phone sex.”
“事實上，我甚至可以和你分享其中的一些，這表明在保護用戶數據方面，是多麼鬆懈。”微軟的一名承包商告訴該科技網站。“我聽到的一些內容可以很準確地描述為電話性愛。”
The contractors are tasked with reviewing the conversations in order to improve the app’s Translator service, which translates audio in real time into a given language.
承包商的任務是審查對話，以改善應用程序的翻譯服務，它將音頻實時翻譯成給定的語言。
The workers are given rough translations of the communications but must vet them and select the most accurate one — or provide their own translation. The audio is treated as confidential.
工作人員會得到通信內容的粗略翻譯，但必須對這些翻譯進行審查，並選擇最準確的翻譯——或者提供他們自己的翻譯。音頻被視為機密。
The data received by Motherboard shows that contractors are also listening to voice commands through Microsoft’s voice assistant, Cortana.
主板接收到的數據顯示，承包商也在通過微軟的語音助手Cortana監聽語音命令。
“I’ve heard people entering full addresses in Cortana commands, or asking Cortana to provide search returns on pornography queries,” the contractor said. “While I don’t know exactly what one could do with this information, it seems odd to me that it isn’t being handled in a more controlled environment.”
“我聽到有人用Cortana命令輸入完整的地址，或者要求Cortana提供色情查詢的搜索結果，”該承包商說。“雖然我不知道人們究竟能對這些信息做些什麼，但我覺得奇怪的是，這些信息沒有在一個更受控制的環境中得到處理。”
Microsoft said everything its contractors are doing is aboveboard.
微軟表示，其承包商所做的一切都是光明正大的。
“Microsoft collects voice data to provide and improve voice-enabled services like search, voice commands, dictation or translation services. We strive to be transparent about our collection and use of voice data to ensure customers can make informed choices about when and how their voice data is used. Microsoft gets customers’ permission before collecting and using their voice data,” a spokesperson told Motherboard in a statement.
“微軟收集語音數據，以提供和改進支持語音的服務，如搜索、語音命令、聽寫或翻譯服務。我們努力在收集和使用語音數據方面做到透明，以確保客戶能夠明智地選擇何時以及如何使用他們的語音數據。微軟在收集和使用客戶的語音數據之前會得到客戶的許可，”一位發言人在一份聲明中表示。
The statement added, “We also put in place several procedures designed to prioritize users’ privacy before sharing this data with our vendors, including de-identifying data, requiring non-disclosure agreements with vendors and their employees, and requiring that vendors meet the high privacy standards set out in European law. We continue to review the way we handle voice data to ensure we make options as clear as possible to customers and provide strong privacy protections.”
聲明還說，“我們還制定了一些程序，旨在在與我們的供應商共享這些數據之前優先考慮用戶的隱私，包括去識別數據，要求與供應商及其員工達成保密協議，並要求供應商滿足歐洲法律規定的高隱私標準。”我們將繼續審查處理語音數據的方式，以確保我們向客戶提供儘可能清晰的選擇，並提供強有力的隱私保護。”
Microsoft said contractors are only privy to audio data through a secure online portal and that the company scrubs information that identifies a user, as well as device identification numbers.
微軟說，承包商只能通過一個安全的在線門戶獲取音頻數據，該公司會屏蔽識別用戶的信息以及設備識別號碼。
“I generally feel like that while we do not have access to user identifiable information, that if Microsoft users were aware that random people sitting at home in their pajamas who could be joking online with friends about the stuff they just heard, that they wouldn’t like that,” the contractor said.
“我覺得,雖然我們沒有訪問用戶身份信息,但如果微軟用戶意識到，穿著睡衣坐在家裡跟朋友在網上開玩笑的對話會被聽到，他們就不會那麼幹。”承包商說。
Amazon’s Alexa service recently came under similar scrutiny following a Bloomberg report that found that workers are sifting through as many as 1,000 recordings per shift.
亞馬遜的Alexa服務最近也受到了類似的審查，此前彭博社(Bloomberg)的一篇報道發現，工人們每輪班要過濾多達1000份錄音。
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