- Google admitted on Thursday that more than 1,000 sound recordings of customer conversations with the Google Assistant were leaked by some of its partners to a Belgian news site.
- These conversations are used by companies such as Google and Amazon – which takes clips from the Amazon Echo – to improve voice responses from their smart assistants.
- And they are supposed to be kept confidential.
- But Belgian news site VRT said that a contractor provided it with samples of these sound samples, which VRT then used to identify some of the people in the clips.
- It also examined the sorts of conversations that Google collects when people say “OK Google,” into a phone or a Google Home product.
- Among other things, VRT heard customer addresses.
- Sources who talked to the publication also described hearing recordings of a woman in distress and people talking about medical conditions.
