Microsoft contractors are listening-in to Skype conversations

Used Skype's translation feature? Microsoft contractors may well have listened in on your call

Microsoft has admitted that contractors have been listening-in to some conversations conducted over Skype. The eavesdropping occurs when users take advantage of Skype's translation feature.

Microsoft has justified the eavesdropping by stating - in the terms and conditions - that "sentences and automatic transcripts are analyzed and any corrections are entered into our system". In other words, it uses the recordings, it claims, to improve the quality of the translations.

Some stuff I've heard could clearly be described as phone sex

However, Microsoft has been criticised for not being explicitly clear that other people could be listening-in on Skype calls - and some of the contractors it uses are employed casually, working from home. Furthermore, many of the conversations and snippets of conversations that are eavesdropped are highly personal.

The issue was uncovered by Motherboard, and has come to light after similar practices were revealed involving Apple and Google with their respective home assistant technology.

Motherboard cited evidence from a contractor, talking anonymously, who also shared extracts of some of the conversations he or she has been party to.

"The fact that I can even share some of this with you shows how lax things are in terms of protecting user data," the anonymous contractor said. Other files obtained by Motherboard show that Microsoft contractors are also listening to voice commands that users speak to Cortana.

"Some stuff I've heard could clearly be described as phone sex," the contractor said. "I've heard people entering full addresses in Cortana commands, or asking Cortana to provide search returns on pornography queries.

"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," they added.

In a statement, a Microsoft spokesperson admitted that it was collecting voice data to "improve voice-enabled services like search, voice commands, dictation or translation services".

The fact that I can even share some of this with you shows how lax things are in terms of protecting user data

It added claimed, though, that it strived to be transparent "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".

However, it also implied that it shares the information more widely than even well-informed users might have thought.

"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."

Microsoft also told Motherboard that audio data is only available to contractors through a secure online portal and that the company takes steps to remove identifying information such as user or device identification numbers.

In addition to recent eavesdropping cases involving the home assistants of Amazon, Apple and Google, Twitter was also implicated in eavesdropping on Direct Messages back in 2015, while a bug in Apple's FaceTime app also enabled callers to listen-in on conversations before respondents had picked up a call.