Amazon is under fire for its privacy policies after a Bloomberg report revealed that the company hires auditors to listen to Echo recordings.
Amazon is under fire after a bombshell report revealed the company employs thousands of auditors to listen to Echo users’ voice recordings.
The team exists to help improve Amazon Alexa’s comprehension of human speech, so the voice command device responds better to commands, according to
a Wednesday
Bloomberg report. The auditors are made up of contractors and full-time Amazon employees working in locations like Boston, Costa Rica, India and Romania.
“The team listens to voice recordings captured in Echo owners’ homes and offices,” according to Bloomberg’s report. “The recordings are transcribed, annotated and then
fed back into the software as part of an effort to eliminate gaps in Alexa’s understanding of human speech and help it better respond to commands.”
According to the report, reviewers sift through up to 1,000 audio clips per shift – listening in on everything from mundane conversations, to people singing in the shower, all the way up recordings that are upsetting and potentially “criminal,” like a child screaming for help or a sexual assault.
