Xbox users' private conversations eavesdropped by Microsoft contractors

Microsoft contractors listened-in on Xbox users - often picking up private conversations when users hadn't even 'hailed' the console

Microsoft has been eavesdropping on Xbox users, employing contractors to listen-in to and create transcripts of conversations that, often, were captured without the console having even been hailed.

The audio recordings were supposed to be captured by users barking at the Xbox's Kinect device with the words "Xbox" or, from 2016, "Hey Cortana". However, sometimes conversations were captured in error, which means that contractors were often forwarded private conversations.

That's according to Motherboard, which reveals that contractors began to listen-in to recordings of Xbox One users following the launch of the Microsoft Kinect system in 2014, and continued to do so during the company's switch to Cortana in 2016.

It comes just days after Microsoft admitted to listening-in on Skype and Cortana conversations, while the developers of other voice recognition systems used in smartphones and personal assistants have also been accused of recording people's conversations.

Facebook admitted transcribing Messenger audio clips earlier this month - as has Amazon, Apple and Google.

Contractors speaking to Motherboard said that most of the recorded voices they reviewed were those of children, which could be in breach of the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission.

However, according to one contractor, the Xbox recordings weren't as salacious as some of the conversations heard by contractors hired to listen-in on Skype conversations.

"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," the contractor said.

"The Xbox stuff was actually a bit of a welcome respite, honestly. It was frequently the same games. Same DLCs [down-loadable content]. Same types of commands."

Microsoft claimed in a statement that it "stopped reviewing any voice content taken through Xbox for product improvement purposes a number of months ago", which is unsurprising given that Cortana has been removed from the console and can only be used for Xbox commands through companion apps for Android and iOS.

"We no longer felt it was necessary, and we have no plans to restart those reviews," the Microsoft spokesperson continued.

"We occasionally review a low volume of voice recordings sent from one Xbox user to another when there are reports that a recording violated our terms of service and we need to investigate. This is done to keep the Xbox community safe and is clearly stated in our Xbox terms of service."