Google has something to say about human workers listening to your Google Assistant recordings. Read full statement

Search giant Google has finally ackwledged its human workers can access some recordings of what you say to Google Assistant through Google Home smart speakers as well as smartphone devices. Google responded after an incident was reported that some of Google's Dutch langu audio snippets were leaked. Google's product manr David Monsees has also ackwledged leak in his official blog post and said company is investigating breach. Read his full statement below:

"We’re focused on building products that work for everyone, and as part of this, we invest significant resources to ensure that our speech techlogy works for a wide variety of langus, accents and dialects. This enables products like Google Assistant to understand your request, wher you’re speaking English or Hindi. 

As part of our work to develop speech techlogy for more langus, we partner with langu experts around world who understand nuances and accents of a specific langu. se langu experts review and transcribe a small set of queries to help us better understand those langus. This is a critical part of process of building speech techlogy, and is necessary to creating products like Google Assistant. 

We just learned that one of se langu reviewers has violated our data security policies by leaking confidential Dutch audio data. 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 to prevent misconduct like this from happening again.

We apply a wide range of safeguards to protect user privacy throughout entire review process. Langu experts only review around 0.2 percent of all audio snippets. Audio snippets are t associated with user accounts as part of review process, and reviewers are directed t to transcribe background conversations or or ises, and only to transcribe snippets that are directed to Google. 

Google Assistant only sends audio to Google after your device detects that you’re interacting with Assistant—for example, by saying “Hey Google” or by physically triggering Google Assistant. A clear indicator (such as flashing dots on top of a Google Home or an on-screen indicator on your Android device) will activate any time device is communicating with Google in order to fulfill your request. Rarely, devices that have Google Assistant built in may experience what we call a “false accept.” This means that re was some ise or words in background that our software interpreted to be hotword (like “Ok Google”). We have a number of protections in place to prevent false accepts from occurring in your home.  

Building products for everyone is a core part of our DNA at Google. We hold ourselves to high standards of privacy and security in product development, and hold our partners to se same standards. We also provide you with tools to man and control data stored in your account. You can turn off storing audio data to your Google account completely, or choose to auto-delete data after every 3 months or 18 months. We’re always working to improve how we explain our settings and privacy practices to people, and will be reviewing opportunities to furr clarify how data is used to improve speech techlogy. Visit your account to review or change your settings, and view (and, if you choose, delete) all activity that's stored with your account."

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More than 1,000 recordings were obtained by Belgian broadcaster VRT NWS which ted that some contained sensitive personal conversations — as well as information that identified person speaking. VRT reporters could hear spoken home addresses in some of recordings and were able to track down speakers. Some of se conversations were t directed at Assistant and happened eir as background ise or as a mistaken recording when Assistant thought it was being spoken to, but wasn’t.

Google’s recording feature can be turned off. People who turn off recording feature lose ability for Assistant to personalise your settings, recognise individual voices and learn your voice pattern.

(With inputs from AP)