Google stops listening in on home devices in EU after German regulatory order

News Broadband Germany 2 AUG 2019
Google stops listening in on home devices in EU after German regulatory order

Google has communicated to the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (HmbBfDI) that it will stop taking transcriptions of voice recordings from its home assistant devices for at least three months from 01 August in the European Union.  

The HmbBfDI had opened an administrative proceeding to ban Google from carrying out an assessment of recordings from its home assistants through employees or third parties. The ban should protect the privacy rights of those affected. 

Google uses its Google Home smart speakers to assess people's voice recordings in order to improve the speech recognition capabilities of Google Assistant. Employees of Google or commissioned companies hear the recordings and transcribe them to analyse whether the information is processed correctly by the artificial intelligence system. According to previous reports, the recorded conversations revealed personal information of the people using the devices.

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Internet

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Google

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Europe

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Germany

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Security, Regulations, IT - applications, Consumer devices

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