Report: Google “accidentally” collected and leaked user data, including CHILDREN’s voice data

06/14/2024 / By Richard Brown

Tech giant Google has “accidentally” collected children’s voice data and leaked information about carpool users’ trips and home addresses. This is according to a report by the online tech-focused publication 404 Media, which based its investigation on a leaked internal database.

The report revealed that the database contains thousands of privacy-related incidents spanning six years, from 2013 to 2018. The dataset was obtained from an anonymous source and subsequently verified by 404 Media. Google has confirmed certain aspects of the information. (Related: Google settles $5 billion privacy washing lawsuit for undisclosed amount.)

The incidents involved issues with Google’s own products and data collection practices, vulnerabilities in third-party vendors used by Google, and mistakes made by staff, contractors, or others affecting Google systems or data.

While most incidents impacted only a small number of people or were quickly resolved, the cumulative data shows how Google manages – and often mismanages – a vast amount of sensitive personal information.

In one instance, a Google speech service “inadvertently” recorded the voices of approximately 1,000 children for about an hour. The team then deleted all logged speech data from the affected period. Another incident involved Google Street View transcribing and storing license plate numbers from photos.

Google told 404 Media in a statement that “employees can quickly flag potential product issues for review by the relevant teams,” adding that the reports obtained by 404 Media are from six years ago and were reviewed and resolved at the time.

“In some cases, these employee flags turned out not to be issues at all or were issues that employees found in third-party services,” Google said after 404 Media shared the identifying codes of around 30 incidents with the tech company.

The internal database also highlighted various other privacy-related incidents.

For example, it documented cases where sensitive data from Google’s own products, like Google Maps and Google Home, was inadvertently exposed. It also detailed how vulnerabilities in third-party services integrated with Google products sometimes led to unauthorized access to user data.

Furthermore, some incidents were allegedly caused by human error, such as employees or contractors accidentally mishandling data or misconfiguring systems, leading to temporary exposure of private information.

The leak comes at a time when Google’s reliability “is already in question” after inaccurate responses from its AI Overviews feature, which forced the company to scale back the feature.

Google unable to protect user data

This recent disclosure of privacy lapses adds to the growing concerns about how well Google protects user data and manages its extensive information systems.

According to a report from the New York Post, a series of internal documents from Google reveals several privacy breaches, including the unauthorized collection of children’s voice data, license plate numbers, carpool routes, and private home addresses.

The leaked documents indicate thousands of similar cases flagged by Google employees over a five-year period, from 2013 to 2018. It appears that Google’s algorithm was responsible for collecting this sensitive data.

One other notable incident found that Google may have exposed the personal email addresses and IP addresses of around a million users, including minors.

These and many other privacy and data security issues have led to complaints being filed with federal authorities such as the Federal Trade Commission, resulting in settlements and ongoing investigations.

Read the latest news involving tech giant Google at EvilGoogle.news.

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