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Google temporarily halts eavesdropping on its users in EU amid privacy scandal over leaked data

02 August 2019 17:58 (UTC +04:00)

German authorities have forced Google to temporarily suspend its practice of manually reviewing audio recordings that help test its Google Assistant, according to a fresh report, following a move by the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information to investigate the tech giant’s handling of those files, APA reports citing Sputnik.

In a new data security scandal twist, Google has sparked concerns over its outsourcing the review of filed exchanges between users and its digital assistant, for the company to gather data on various accents and dialects for more effective speech recognition. EU regulators, however, argued many of them were recorded unbeknownst to those affected.

The cessation of manual reviews that applies to the whole of the European Union, and arguably internationally (though it hasn’t been confirmed by a Google spokesperson) comes as a preventive measure to protect citizens in the event that the three-month investigation finds Google to have been violating the General Data Protection Regulation, commonly known as the GDPR:

"The use of automatic speech assistants from providers such as Google, Apple and Amazon is proving to be highly risky for the privacy of those affected”, Thursday's report from the Hamburg Commissioner read. "[The ban] is intended to provisionally protect the rights of privacy of data subjects for the time being”.

In a statement to The Verge, Google made it clear that they’ve already halted what they refer to as “language reviews” conducted by outsource staffers, and are working with German authorities on the best policies to pursue to help customers understand in what way their data may be exploited.

In a bid to defend their review of audio materials, Google asserted the practice helps make voice recognition systems more inclusive of various accents and dialects of languages, while assuring that they don’t associate audio clips with concrete user accounts during the process and “only perform reviews from around 0.2% of all clips”.