Facebook joined a chorus of high-profile tech companies earlier this month when it confirmed that it uses contractors to manually listen to users’ audio messages to improve Messenger’s AI. After a Bloomberg report revealed the practice, Facebook announced the process was on hiatus. “Much like Apple and Google, we paused human review of audio more than a week ago,” a Facebook spokesperson told CNBC.

Some privacy advocates noted Facebook Messenger’s policy allows transcription of all messages, even without the consent of all parties involved in the audio recording. The practice highlights how such apps and smart devices only need to obtain consent from one party to record multiple parties, lawyers said.