> If you were a Mercor contractor and you believe your voice may already be in circulation, ORAVYS will analyze the first three suspect samples free of charge.

Awesome, if you're a victim of an AI company having your voice, you can help yourself by sending another AI company your voice!

> Audio is never used to train commercial models without explicit consent

I'm sure Mercor has explicit consent as well, legal teams are reasonably good at legally covering their asses with license terms.

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saadn92 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The irony runs deeper than the free analysis offer. The whole Mercor contractor relationship was this exact pattern: hand over studio-quality voice recordings and ID scans to get paid for data labeling work that didn't require either. "Explicit consent" was buried in the terms, and people clicked through because they needed the paycheck.

Now 40k people have learned that biometrics aren't passwords. You can't rotate your voice.

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inetknght 2 hours ago | parent [-]

> biometrics aren't passwords. You can't rotate your voice.

"My voice is my passport. Verify me."

I have to renew my passport every 10 years or so. How do I do that with my voice? I guess it's time to take some vocal lessons.

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eqvinox a minute ago | parent | next [-]

Reminds me of the Interrail data breach [https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/eurail-data-breach-3080...]

The fediverse take on that was "customers are advised to rotate their faces and birthdays."

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Romario77 an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

just take up smoking heavily

	▲	throwaway67743 22 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Despite popular belief, even heavy smoking does not alter your voice in a significant way.

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lynndotpy 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think "CYA" is maybe a misleading or overflowery term.

In the idealized world, the legal system is meant to provide an accessible alternative to violence for reconciling disputes, but it's increasingly wielded as an impossibly kafkaesque system meant to maintain corporate power over individuals.

I think "CYA" is an overly-flowery term for the reality that they're blocking every avenue for legal recourse, while a variety of other avenues still exist for which adding friction requires the maintenance of expensive and ongoing costs (owning multiple residences, hiring security, etc.)

(To be clear, I am advocating for a more accessible and level legal system, not for UHC-style violence.)

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cholmdomsky an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I'm taking some college courses, and one of them explicitly suggests to keep maybe-not-okay communications off of email so that "you don't expose your company to risks of litigation."

Ah, I see. So, when discussing ways to ensure cuatomers cannot utilize our warranty process, I'll make sure to do so in ways that are not traceable and won't show up in discovery.

	▲	skybrian an hour ago \| parent [-]
		The underlying reason is that employees don't always know what they're talking about, but their nonsense could be useful to the other side in a court case. The bigger the company, the more speculation there is about stuff people don't actually understand.

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sophacles an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

> In the idealized world, the legal system is meant to provide an accessible alternative to violence for reconciling disputes, but it's increasingly wielded as an impossibly kafkaesque system meant to maintain corporate power over individuals.

This is an overly flowery way of saying: violence.

The worst of the consequences are the same. People end up dead, destitute, and/or with long-term health consequences and are unable to enjoy the fruits labor in the worst cases. In the milder cases i think i'd prefer a bruise for a week to a huge financial loss.

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traverseda an hour ago | parent [-]

There are plenty of nonviolent extralegal options. Ranging fron sit-ins and protests, to destruction of property, to many examples in the CIA's subtle sabotage field guide like running meetings poorly.

	▲	sli 43 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		They're saying due to the real world effects, the current system isn't meaningfully different from violence. They aren't advocating for violence in turn.

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caminante 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Per the WSJ article last week, I suspect Mercor's playing in a grey area of contracts. It wasn't just voice.[0]

A lot of people were basically wiretapping themselves AND their businesses!

While a lot of Mercor "contractors" claim Mercor over-reached with data gathering via Insightful, it's kind of smart because people are too afraid to complain too much knowing they'll not only lose their primary job, but also open themselves up to uncapped liability for willful misconduct.

[0] https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/mercor-ai-startup-personal-data-...

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a012 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Reminds me of my experience when trying to remove my Airbnb account, they require my ID card scans of both sides. I said fuck it and never touch this company again

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sidewndr46 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This reminds me of those identity theft settlements, where you need to prove your identity to claim the reward

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aitchnyu an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I remember an AI dataset tool asking candidates to record a 1 minute self intro video for interview purposes in 2022. I was wondering if they were manually watching all of them.

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Henchman21 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Has your identity been stolen? Try our free credit monitoring for a month!

Selling the solution to the problem you caused ought to be illegal.

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zkmon 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> Selling the solution to the problem you caused ought to be illegal.

Most tech solutions are built on the problems they created. This includes phones, cars, computers, every software upgrade, and almost every electronic gadget. You are forced to use them because the world around you is no longer compatible with the way of life that was before the introduction of these tech.

	▲	danlitt 40 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I probably agree with you but what on earth are phones and cars doing in this list? They solve obvious physical problems not caused by a company.

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hedora 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

This would eliminate the credit report, monitoring and fixing industry, which would be a good thing.

Court records are public in the US. If creditors want to know if you’ve been in financial trouble, they should check for bankruptcies and lawsuits, not the extrajudicial version of those that the credit reporting companies run based on hearsay.

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cyanydeez an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

This reminds me of all the new companies that want to "help" you get your public information out of $CORPORATE hands; as if these companies will some how not succumb to either enshittification or breach.

The good thing about the grift economy is it grifts itself, like the turtles!