Google Promises Assistant Users More Audio Privacy

Google has announced tweaks to its privacy policy following earlier reports that its Google Assistant software was eavesdropping on user conversations.

Although it does not retain Assistant audio recordings by default, according to Senior Product Manager Nino Tasca, the company has increased privacy protections affecting the transcription process used to check the accuracy of responses to voice interactions.

Google announced other changes to the way Assistant handles voice recordings and said it would purge most saved recordings by year's end.

The privacy control changes resulted from Google's "falling short" of meeting user expectations on data transparency, Tasca said.