It seems that Amazon is not the only company that makes people listen to the conversations you have with your voice assistant. Google is now surprised to do the same. Belgian broadcaster VRT NWS announced today that Google is hiring contractors to listen to and transcribe audio recordings of users who are chatting with the Google Assistant, via a smart speaker or their phone. One of these contractors provided the station with more than 1,000 records for an investigation of the transcription process. Many logs were found to include personally identifiable user information, while 153 conversations were apparently logged accidentally because the "OK Google" or "Hey Google" activation command was not used to trigger the alarm. digital assistant According to the report, Google employs thousands of contractors around the world to transcribe the assistant's conversations, although they all use a secure identifier to access the records through the Crowdsource app. the society. You can watch the original report, with English subtitles, in the video below.
In defense of Google
Though it's no secret, Google collects user data and stores recorded conversations with the Assistant, but the company has yet to reveal that humans are listening in on some of these interactions as well. After VRT NWS broke the news, Google published an article stating that the system was needed to gain more insight into user behavior and to improve algorithms and customer experience. assistant. "The company's voice technology applies to a wide variety of languages, accents, and dialects," which means "allowing products like the Google Assistant to understand your request, whether you speak English or Hindi." According to Google, contractors only listen to 0.2% of all audio clips and no one is "associated with a user account." Additionally, transcriptionists are instructed "not to transcribe background conversations or other noise, but only to transcribe excerpts that are intended for Google." Google also states that there are "a number of security measures in place to prevent false acceptances" - that is, when the assistant is accidentally triggered by "noise or words in the background". A businessman who transfers audio clips to a medium, according to Google, violates its security rules. The company is investigating the incident and stating that action will be taken against the leak manager. Google is also reviewing the rules in place for its writers "to prevent such reprehensible behavior from happening again."