Google announced privacy changes to Google Assistant's audio recording system on Monday (23). From now on, the personal assistant gains greater user data exclusion, more protection filters and messages explaining that conversations can be reviewed by humans with the option of configuring the device so that this does not happen. The changes come after controversy over the monitoring of private audio recordings by the company and competitors Apple, with Siri, and Amazon, with Alexa.
To control the quality of the service, both made use of outsourced employees to listen to private conversations without the permission of the people. In the following lines, understand what the changes are and how they can influence how you use your device.
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Google Announces Changes in Google Assistant Privacy Photo: Paulo Alves / dnetc
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In the default configuration, Android users' audio files are not stored by the company. However, if you wish, you can change this and other settings from the Voice & Audio Activity (AVA) section, located in the Google Settings tab. If you allow the audios to be part of the review process, the platform displays a message informing you that human reviewers can hear short snippets of what has been recorded.
Professionals have access to only a small portion of voice commands: about 0.2% of all recorded excerpts (from whom they chose to enable the feature). The goal of the initiative, according to the company, is for the information to be used to make improvements to the system.
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In addition, Google has made it clear that a number of measures have been taken to ensure that during the human review process audio files are never linked to specific accounts. The company said it included more security protection filters to prevent any snippets heard by human reviewers from personally identifying users.
The company further explained that Google Assistant currently deletes any and all information that was accidentally recorded, such as when some noise resembles the phrase Ok Google. However, new privacy filters will be added to identify commands correctly, and devices will no longer be more sensitive to other words and phrases that resemble Ok Google. This new data exclusion policy will be implemented by AVA by the end of this year.
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