Google user might not realise that their voice is being recorded – luckily there is a simple way to switch it off.
Google remains the most popular way to search the web but users of this popular platform might be unaware of some things that are going on behind the scenes. To help improve its service, Google says it does record voices and even saves some audio when users interact with its Search, Assistant and much-used Maps service. The technology company is fully upfront about what it stores and says that some settings have to be turned on before any recordings are made.
“When you speak to Google services, Google uses its audio recognition technologies to process your audio and respond to you,” Google states in its terms. “Google uses audio saved by this setting to develop and improve its audio recognition technologies and the Google services that use them, like Google Assistant.”
Although your private chats will never be recorded or snooped on, Google has confirmed that it does have a team dedicated to listening to snippets of saved audio which is then used to improve voice search.
“For some audio technology improvements, samples of audio saved when this setting is on are analysed by trained reviewers, who listen to, transcribe and annotate it, so that Google services can better interpret the audio,” Google confirmed. “We take steps to protect your privacy as part of this process, for example, by disassociating your audio from your account when reviewers analyse it.”
Asking your phone for directions and chatting to your smart speaker is clearly useful but if you don’t like the thought of Google listening in then there’s a very simple way to switch things off.
All you have to do is head to the Google app on your phone and tap the account icon in the top corner of the screen.
From here, tap Manage Google Account then press Data and Privacy . Scroll down to Web & App Activity and switch off I nclude voice and audio activity.
If you turn off this voice and audio activity setting, Google will no longer save audio recordings in your Google Account on Google servers with your Web & App Activity when you interact with Google Search, Assistant and Maps.
Google does say that it will continue to process your audio to respond to you when you speak to Google services.
It’s also worth noting that when this setting is off, Google won’t use audio previously saved when this setting was on to improve its voice technologies like Voice Match.
However, previously saved audio may continue to be used to improve other audio technologies unless you delete it.
Google also says you can delete previously saved audio with your Web & App Activity at activity.google.com.
For most people, this probably won’t cause much concern but it’s a handy tip for anyone who really wants to keep everything about their lives totally private.
