Microsoft contractors manually review Copilot users' uploaded photos — with no human-review opt-out, 404 Media reports

What happened: Internal documents obtained by 404 Media describe a Microsoft Copilot rating workflow in which hundreds of human contractors (at least one supplier identified as Prolific) are shown a Copilot user's prompt, their uploaded photo, and two AI-generated edits, then pick the better edit on quality criteria (followed the request, rest of image intact, no glitches, looks good overall), judging on gut feel. One contractor told 404 Media that "faces are always uncensored" in the images they review. Contractors described seeing sexualized editing requests involving real people — altering women's clothing and bodies, upskirt photo sets, sexualized images of cartoon characters and pro-anorexia content — many apparently made without the pictured person's consent. The reviewers are quality raters, not moderators, and are not tasked with flagging abusive content. Microsoft's own Privacy FAQ says "an opt-out of human review is not available," and the separate model-training opt-out does not cover human review. A Microsoft spokesperson told the outlet it uses customer data as described in its terms of use, including to improve products and enforce its code of conduct.

Why it matters to creators: creators uploading original photos or artwork to Copilot for AI editing have their work — including their own faces — seen unblurred by strangers, with no way to opt out or know whether their upload was reviewed; Microsoft FAQ asks users not to upload others' images without consent but nothing technically prevents it, so third-party likenesses can be swept in too. This is a concrete consent-controls gap for photography and visual-art creators, and a likeness risk for anyone photographed.

Not yet known: 404 Media did not specify whether the documents cover the older Copilot app or the updated app released August 18, 2026, whose privacy pages don't address human review; it's also not clear what share of uploads reach human reviewers or how long review copies are retained.