The tech giant makes the rare move of offering direct compensation for user data.
Qualifying voice recordings collected by Viewpoints, Facebook’s market research app, will be rewarded with a $5 gift card. The recordings will go towards training the artificial intelligence that supports the company’s Portal devices. Facebook is developing Portal smart speakers to rival Amazon Echo and Google Home.
“Participants record phrases within the app, which helps us improve name pronunciation recognition in our products to better serve the people that use them,” a Facebook spokesperson said. Facebook said on the service’s website: “We don’t share your Facebook Viewpoints activity on Facebook or on other accounts you’ve linked without your permission. We also don’t sell your information from this app to third parties.”