MESSAGE
| DATE | 2019-08-17 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Facebook Tracking and Security
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-15/facebook-transcription-opt-in-says-nothing-about-human-listeners?srnd=markets-vp
Facebook Inc. this week confirmed that it ran a program to allow
contractors to listen to and transcribe some users’ audio clips. The
social network said that the only people who were affected were those
who agreed to have their audio messages transcribed.
That makes it sound like users agreed to have their chats read by third
parties. But based on a look at the Messenger permissions pop-up
dialogue box, they didn’t.
In the Messenger mobile app, as soon as someone sends a voice message,
they get a prompt asking, “Turn on Voice to Text in this chat?” Above
the “No” and “Yes” buttons, Facebook describes the option: “Display text
of voice clips you send and receive. You can control whether text is
visible to you for each chat.”
There is no mention of human involvement. Even in a separate information
page in the app dedicated to understanding Voice to Text, Facebook
explains that users can turn it off for each chat, and prompts people to
use it more. “Voice to Text uses machine learning,” it says. “The more
you use this feature, the more Voice to Text can help you.” There’s no
explanation that machine learning doesn’t just involve software code.
relates to Facebook Tells Chat Users Nothing About Human Listeners
Companies including Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Google have been
relying on humans to check and improve their artificial intelligence
systems -- they’re just not telling their users about it. That’s a
critical lapse at a time when all of the companies -- especially
Facebook -- are facing regulatory scrutiny for privacy lapses. The Irish
Data Protection Commissioner, which enforces European Union privacy
laws, said it was looking into Facebook’s transcription practices.
“AI just isn’t at the level yet where it can interpret human
conversation,” meaning the companies need to rely on monitoring to help
train the systems, said Jennifer King, director of consumer privacy at
Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society. “But the big
issue from my perspective is the non-disclosure. Users clearly don’t
know it’s happening.”
The report on Facebook’s human transcription program raised the ire of
U.S. lawmakers, some of whom were already calling for stronger privacy
protections than those imposed by a $5 billion settlement with the
Federal Trade Commission approved last month. Senator Mark Warner, a
Virginia Democrat, said the latest revelation about Facebook’s audio
collection “is yet further proof that consumers’ expectations of how
their data is collected and used radically differ from what companies
like Facebook are actually doing.”
Some privacy lawyers suggested the lack of disclosure ran afoul of the
company’s settlement with the FTC. That agreement, which resolved known
conduct before June 12, bars misrepresentations by Facebook about user
privacy controls, third-party access to user data and how information is
collected, used and disclosed.
"Absent some other disclosure to users regarding the human listening, I
do believe it is likely this is a violation of the order in the case,"
said Mark McCreary, chief privacy officer at law firm Fox Rothschild LLP.
(Updates with comments from privacy lawyer in final paragraphs.)
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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