Lawsuit filed against Otter.ai over alleged private conversation recording on Zoom, Google Meet

A lawsuit filed in the US alleges that note-taking tool, Otter.ai, has been "deceptively and surreptitiously" recording private conversations from platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. According to the suit, the company uses these recordings to train its popular transcription service, Otter Notebook, without getting permission from the participants. The lawsuit further claims that the AI tool does not obtain consent from meeting attendees to record the same. 

As per the privacy policy of Otter, it trains its AI using meeting transcripts, but only after users permit it by checking a box that allows Otter and third parties to process private conversations for training and product improvement purposes.

However, the lawsuit argues that many users were still misled.

In recent months, Otter has faced privacy concerns related to its growing use in workplaces. The company has highlighted that around 25 million people rely on its AI transcription tools, which have processed over one billion meetings since its launch in 2016, according to a media report.

The lawsuit also argued that Otter does not seek approval from all meeting participants, typically asking only the host for permission when an account holder joins a call.

Although the company claims it anonymizes meeting audio before using it to train its AI, the lawsuit challenges this assertion, pointing to a lack of public transparency around the anonymization process.