Microsoft contractors listened to audio recordings captured by Xbox One Kinect and Cortana in people’s homes, a report by Motherboard has revealed.
It’s a practice that started at the beginning of the Xbox One’s life cycle to improve the voice command system run through the Kinect, but several contractors said they listened to audio accidentally picked up and recorded by owners’ consoles as well.
“Most of the Xbox related stuff I can recall doing was obviously unintentional activations with people telling Cortana ‘No’ as they were obviously in the middle of a game and doing normal game chat,” a current contractor said (as the contractors had signed NDAs, Motherboard kept them anonymous to protect their identities).
“Occasionally I heard ‘Xbox, tell Solas to heal,’ or something similar, which would be a command for Dragon Age: Inquisition,” a former contractor said. Had I owned an Xbox I’d almost be worried one came straight from me.
The former contractor also noted most of the voices they heard were of children – unsurprising that a kid might accidentally trigger the function on their console, but disconcerting none-the-less.
Microsoft announced last month Cortana will soon be dropped from the console, though it can still be controlled by an Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant device – two other companies that have come under fire for allowing contractors to review their audio.