Dozens of people working for Amazon in India and Romania are listening to video recordings of their Cloud Cam home security camera to train their artificial intelligence algorithms, according to Bloomberg.
Five people reported to the media on condition of anonymity that they can listen to up to 150 video clips lasting 20 to 30 seconds per shift, in order to improve the camera’s ability to distinguish real threats, such as home violations.
Asked by Bloomberg, Amazon claims that all videos viewed by staff are voluntarily submitted by people who identify issues with the product.”We take privacy seriously and give full control to Cloud Cam customer video clips,” says a company spokeswoman.
Two of the people mentioned in the article, however, have already seen extracts that the clientele probably would not want to share voluntarily with Amazon, including some where we saw people in full sexual intercourse.
It is not mentioned anywhere in the conditions of use of the Cloud Cam that humans watch video clips to drive artificial intelligence algorithms.
Employees say they work on a secure floor where they do not have the right to use their mobile phones. This would not have prevented some people from sending images to people outside the company, according to two of them.
Initially released in 2017, Cloud Cam is no longer sold on Amazon’s Canadian website. It costs $ 120 in the United States, where various monthly packages are also sold that provide access to various recording and monitoring features.
Not the first controversy
Bloomberg revealed in April that thousands of Amazon employees around the world were listening to conversations and recordings picked up by Echo connected speakers to improve Alexa, the company’s virtual assistant.
This practice is still common, but it is possible to prevent these records from reaching Amazon, either by disabling an option in Alexa’s mobile app.
Apple and Google also used human teams to check the records of their virtual assistants. The apple brand ended this program in August, something the Mountain View business still has not done.
