Google acknowledges that some partners have leaked over 1,000 confidential conversation recordings

Google admitted on Thursday that some partners have leaked more than 1,000 copies of conversations between customers and Google Assistant to a Belgian news site. Companies such as Google and Amazon use these conversations to improve the voice response capabilities of their Assistant services, and conversations should be kept secret.

“Google Speaker”by Piutus is licensed under CC BY 2.0

But the Belgian news site VRT said on Wednesday that a contractor provided a sample of such a dialogue, and the website used the samples to identify some of them. The VRT website also checks what type of conversation information Google collects when it says “OK Google” on a mobile phone or Google Home product. In addition, VRT also heard information such as customer address in the conversation. Sources who have spoken with the site also said they heard a recording of a conversation with a sad woman and a recording of people talking about medical conditions.

Google has now admitted that there are indeed conversational recordings leaked.

“We just learned that one of these language reviewers has violated our data security policies by leaking confidential Dutch audio data,” Google product manager of search David Monsees said in a blog post. “Our Security and Privacy Response teams have been activated on this issue, are investigating, and we will take action. We are conducting a full review of our safeguards in this space to prevent misconduct like this from happening again”

Source: CNBC