Otter.ai Faces Class Action for Allegedly Using Voice Recordings for Training Models
An online transcription service that records users during meetings and interviews also utilizes these voice recordings and other data to train its AI models without consent, alleges a class-action lawsuit filed last week in the U.S. District Court for Northern California against Otter.ai.
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"Otter Notetaker engages in real-time transcription of Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams meetings for Otter accountholders and other users," the complaint notes, but it also makes use of "the contents of private conversations between Otter accountholders" and other meeting participants who are not Otter subscribers.
"Crucially, Otter does not obtain prior consent, express or otherwise, of persons who attend meetings where the Otter Notetaker is enabled, prior to Otter recording, accessing, reading, and learning the contents of conversations between Otter accountholders and other meeting participants," the complaint adds. In addition, Otter fails to tell its subscribers, who set up Otter to record virtual meetings, that they should alert others they are being recorded by Otter Notetaker and "that their conversations are being used to train Otter Notetaker’s automatic speech recognition (ASR) and machine learning models, and in turn, to financially benefit Otter’s business."
Plaintiff Justin Brewer alleges these actions are a violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), among other laws.
An Otter.ai spokesperson said in an email that "Otter does not initiate recordings on its own." Instead, recording "only occurs when initiated by an Otter user, and our Terms of Service make clear that users are responsible for obtaining any necessary permissions before doing so," the spokesperson said.
"All Otter users are instructed to follow any notice and consent rules," and the company provides guidance on those laws, since they may vary depending upon jurisdiction, the spokesperson added. "Nobody should be recorded without their knowledge or permission, regardless of the recording device used."