Microsoft contractors listened to Xbox audio recordings of children in their homes, to improve voice command

Contractors who worked for Microsoft say that in the course of their work, they listened to Xbox users' voice recordings, including recordings that were invoked by children accidentally, to improve Microsoft's techFind voice command technology.

That's right.

Many of the unintentionally made audio recordings were of children.

Being listened to by adult strangers outside of the home.

Reports Joseph Cox at VICE:

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 news is the latest in a string of revelations that show contractors working on behalf of Microsoft listen to audio captured by several of its products. Motherboard previously reported that human contractors were listening to some Skype calls as well as audio recorded by Cortana, Microsoft's Siri-like virtual assistant.

"Xbox commands came up first as a bit of an outlier and then became about half of what we did before becoming most of what we did," one former contractor who worked on behalf of Microsoft told Motherboard. Motherboard granted multiple sources in this story anonymity as they had signed non-disclosure agreements.

The former contractor said they worked on Xbox audio data from 2014 to 2015, before Cortana was implemented into the console in 2016. When it launched in November 2013, the Xbox One had the capability to be controlled via voice commands with the Kinect system.

Microsoft Contractors Listened to Xbox Owners in Their Homes

[photos of kid playing Xbox, SHUTTERSTOCK]