Google Promises To Reduce How Much Audio It Uses For Human Review

Recently, tech giants including Google, Apple, and Amazon are said to have used voice assistants to listen and transcribe parts of user conversations.

Google, in a statement, said it would change the guidelines of the Google Assistant and will become transparent when reviewing future voice recordings. The announcement came after Google was backlashed by silencing information about its contractors eavesdropping on the recorded sounds of users, in order to improve the assistant's competency.

Google claimed that users can now install Voice and Audio Activity (VAA) in their devices when they set up Google Assistant. This will determine whether the users allow Google to store audio data. Also, they can view previous settings with the Assistant and delete unwanted interactions. The company also added that it will update its settings to notify users about the presence of human reviewers. When users set up VAA, human reviewers will listen for user interactions with the assistant. 

For those who have already opted into VAA, the search giant promises to “vastly reduce the amount of audio data we store” as well as “delete the vast majority of audio data associated with your account that’s older than a few months.”

In case users are concerned about Google Assistant recording conversations on the background of their devices, they can adjust the sensitivity of the "Hey Google" feature so that Google Home can hardly be activated by voice.

A suggestion for you is to visit the "Your data in the Assistant" page when you want to check your current settings and study about the available controls. In case you have already joined VAA, most of your voice data from the previous months will be deleted by Google.