Facebook will offer to pay some users for voice recordings that will be used to help improve its voice recognition technology, the company announced Thursday. The move comes after Facebook, as well as Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft, were caught listening to and transcribing voice recordings to improve speech recognition systems without informing customers that it was doing so.
Facebook will allow you to make voice recordings as part of a new program called “Pronunciations” in its Viewpoints market research application. If you qualify to be part of the program, Facebook says that you will be able to record the phrase “Hey Portal” followed by the name of a friend on your friends list. You can do this with the names of up to 10 friends, and you will need to record each statement twice.
You can earn up to $ 5 for making voice recordings
However, Facebook won’t pay a lot for your recordings. If you complete a set of recordings, you will earn 200 points in the Viewpoints app, and you won’t be able to withdraw cash in the Viewpoints app until you earn at least 1,000 points. That only translates to a $ 5 reward through PayPal. However, Facebook says that users can be offered the opportunity to make up to five sets of recordings, so there is a chance to meet that 1,000 point goal and receive payment.
Facebook says that the voice recordings users provide will not be connected to their Facebook profile and that the company does not share Viewpoints activity on Facebook or other Facebook-owned services without permission.
The Pronunciations program will be available to US users 18 years of age and older who have more than 75 Facebook friends. Facebook says it will roll out the program slowly, so it won’t be available to all users right away. If it’s available to you, you won’t need to update the Viewpoints app to see it appear, the company says.
