Microsoft is on a par with Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook, all of whom were found to have wiretapped their customers.
It has become known that Microsoft allowed third-party developers to listen to some Skype voice messages (it is important to note that we are not talking about calls, but about the translation function) and voice commands to the Cortana assistant. As is always stated in such cases, this was done in order to improve the quality of these systems and to increase the accuracy of automated methods of human speech processing.
But unlike Apple and Google, which have said they will stop such practices, Microsoft has chosen to pretend that nothing much is going on. The creator of Windows simply inserted some clauses in the privacy policy, in which it informs about the possibility of listening to some voice data.
So, in the privacy policy you can now find statements like "Our processing of personal data for these purposes includes both automated and manual (involving humans) processing methods. Our automated methods are often linked to and supported by manual methods.
The reasons why technology giants collect users' voice data are understandable and understandable. The problem is that none of them even tried to tell users about such actions. This is precisely the reason for the scandal in which so many well-known brands were involved. And sometimes third-party contractors got their hands on some very personal information, such as addresses or medical data.
It is not yet clear whether this scandal will have any impact on the development of systems that interact with the user through voice commands.