Late last week, social media giant Facebook has announced that it will be paying people $5 US dollars each to record their voices. According to the company, the voice recordings will be used to improve its speech recognition technology.
If the data gathering strategy sounds familiar, it’s because Google employed the same tactic last year to collect facial data from people, mostly students, on select states and cities. Unfortunately, Google was found to be deceiving participants, forcing it to stop the project immediately.
In Facebook’s case, the company appears to be more transparent with its new program called “Pronunciations,” which is part of the company’s Viewpoints app.
Viewpoints is a market research app that was launched in November last year by Facebook. Through the Viewpoints app, Facebook rewards people that are actively participating in its surveys, tasks, and research initiatives.
Facebook product manager Erez Naveh said in a statement:
“We believe the best way to make products better is to get insights directly from people who use them. We’ll use these insights to improve products like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Portal, and Oculus, and to benefit the broader community.”
$5 for Voice Recordings
Only select individuals can participate in Facebook’s new program.
Participants have to submit voice recordings of the phrase “Hey Portal, call…” followed by saying the first name of a Facebook friend multiple times. It could take someone about five minutes to complete the task.
The task is equivalent to 200 points on the Viewpoints app. Participants can repeat the job five times for a total of 1000 points, which amounts to $5. They can later claim their payments via Paypal.
Facebook clarified that the voice recordings submitted by the participants would not be tied to their Facebook profiles. The company also noted that it’s not using the data gathered via the Viewpoints market research app without permission.
Only those living in the United States aged 18 and above with over 75 friends on Facebook could potentially participate in the Pronunciations program.
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