Editor’s Note, 8/7/19: Amazon, Apple and Google have each now suspended human review of user audio recordings. Ever since Alexa and speakers stereo Google Assistant first burst onto the scene and started populating people’s homes with smart speakers and other gadgets outfitted with always-listening microphones, people have wondered whether anyone other than their AI assistant of choice was listening in. Well, the answer is yes — both Amazon and Google have admitted that they hire contractors to listen to anonymized user audio clips for the purposes of improving their respective assistant’s capabilities. That might have seemed like an obvious assumption to some, but to many, it was a wake-up call. That’s true not just for Amazon and Google, but for all of the gadgets and services that need our data to function. What are these companies doing with our data? How are they protecting it? Are they sharing any of it with third parties?
Amazon spokesperson told CNET in April. Always-listening gadgets equipped with Alexa or Google Assistant like this Lenovo Smart Clock are seeking a place in just about every room of our homes. The spokesperson added that employees can’t directly access identifying information about the people or accounts associated with the recordings. Meanwhile, Google chalks it all up to the complexities of building a fully capable, multilingual voice assistant. David Monsees, product manager for Google Search, said in a blog post Thursday. Google adds that the audio samples these contractors listen to amount to about 0.2% of all recordings, and that user account details aren’t associated with any of them. 0.2% — is that it? Google’s blog post specifically addresses audio that reviewers are listening to for the purpose of helping Google Assistant master a variety of languages, dialects and accents. But are there any other purposes for which Google or its contractors listen to user audio? Post has be en creat ed by GSA Content Generator Dem over sion!
I asked a Google spokesperson that exact question, but did not receive an answer. Instead, the company reiterated that language experts review around 0.2 percent of all audio snippets. I asked again — are the language experts Monsees describes the only contractors or employees at Google who listen to user audio? That said, Amazon claims that the actual percentage of audio recordings the company listens to and transcribes is very small, and similar to what Google pegs it at. As with Google, I also asked if there were any other instances outside of these where Amazon employees would listen to a user’s audio recordings. What about third parties? Is my voice data being shared? Good question. Let’s start with Google. The company has a multitude of different posts that talk about its approach to privacy for various Google services, and there’s a lot to mine through in order to find clear answers.
In some cases, the text is confusing. One instance occurs on a page for sneaker sneaker band wiki (amazon.com) wiki (amazon.com) Google Nest services outlining the company’s commitment to privacy — a separate page from the Google or Google Assistant privacy policies. Read back to back, those sentences seem to contradict each other. Google won’t use audio recordings for ad personalization, but when you use the Assistant, Google may use those interactions “to inform your interests for ad personalization.” So which is it? Does using the Google Assistant impact the ads you see or doesn’t it? Shortly thereafter, the post refers you to Google’s overall privacy policy for more specifics. What does that mean for Google Assistant audio recordings, though? If I ask where the nearest flower shop is, am I going to be added to an anonymized list of people who might be interested in buying flowers? Will that list ever be shared with a marketing company for online bouquet deliveries that would then market to me?
The problem is that Google’s privacy policy doesn’t really help with device-specific questions like that. In fact, Google’s privacy policy only includes the word “voice” once, as an item in the list of “activity information” Google collects (that’s also the only place in the policy that mentions the word “audio”). Meanwhile, the policy doesn’t include the words “microphone,” “recordings” or “assistant” at all. Amazon spokesperson tells me. An Amazon post titled, “Alexa, Echo Devices, and Your Privacy” makes no mention of Amazon contractors listening to your recordings, and it doesn’t address whether your data is shared with third parties. Like Google, Amazon has a page on common Alexa privacy questions that’s separate from the overall Alexa terms of use. It’s concise, just 400 words or so, and it makes no mention of any instances where an Amazon employee or contractor would listen to your recordings. There’s also nothing in it about whether or not Amazon shares any of your data or recordings with third parties.
