Google announces changes to its policies regarding the audio recordings made on Google Assistant in a bid to put its users more at ease.
It follows the significant backlash over the recent revelations of a Google contractor leaking about a thousand voice recordings that were supposed to help improve the company's services.
Google Announces Updates To Audio Data Policies
In light of concerns over privacy and security of audio data, Google acknowledged in a new blog post its shortcomings in making it easy for users understand how their personal data is used.
"When we learned about these concerns, we immediately paused this process of human transcription globally to investigate, and conducted a full review of our systems and controls," the company wrote in the blog.
According to Google, it doesn't store user audio recordings by default, and it will continue not to do so. Instead, users can opt in to this feature in the Settings to provide the company information to improve its speech technology.
Some of the changes that Google is making include asking users to confirm the Voice & Audio Activity setting if they've opted in. The company is also continuing to work on and improve the feature that automatically deletes audio data that's been activated unintentionally.
In the leaked voice recordings, a lot of the data were unintended recordings captured without prompting.
"Soon we'll also add a way to adjust how sensitive your Google Assistant devices are to prompts like "Hey Google," giving you more control to reduce unintentional activations," the company continued, adding that for users who want to, it can be easier to get help, even in noisy environments.
According to Google, its goal is to minimize the amount of data it's storing so that even users who have opted in to VAA will only have their audio data stored for a few months before getting automatically deleted. By the later part of 2019, Google will be rolling out this new policy.
Other Companies And Privacy
It's not just Google that has gotten flak for its misuse of user data. Apple and Amazon have also been found to be saving conversations through Siri and Alexa, also in a bid to improve algorithms.
Like Google, Apple only studies data of Siri users who have opted in. Amazon is taking a different approach, allowing Alexa users to opt out instead to keep their audio recordings private from contractors.
Google's recent announcement has been lauded by digital rights experts and campaigners.
"Companies should do the right thing and make sure people choose to be recorded," Open Rights Group executive director Jim Killock told BBC. "They shouldn't be forced into checking that every company isn't intruding into their homes and daily conversations."
