Otter.ai Faces Class Action Over Privacy Concerns

Yesterday, I wrote about Bartz v. Anthropic, a copyright infringement class action that recently reached a settlement. However, copyright claims aren’t the only thing driving class actions against AI companies. Another example is Brewer v. Otter.ai. Recently filed in California, this case is a class action alleging violations of consumer privacy laws. Otter.ai is an AI note-taking application that can join video conferences, record participants, and take notes. However, it doesn’t require the permission of all attendees and instead relies on the user to gain consent for the recording. Plaintiffs are arguing that this violates federal and state privacy laws. A recent Jackson Lewis memo explains the lawsuit’s allegations, stating:

“The lawsuit asserts a wide range of claims, including violations of:

• Federal law: the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).
• California law: the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), the Comprehensive Computer Data and Fraud Access Act, common law intrusion upon seclusion and conversion, and the Unfair Competition Law (UCL).

The plaintiffs allege that Otter effectively acted as an unauthorized third party eavesdropper, intercepting communications and repurposing them for product training without consent.”

The risks of AI note-taking are more subtle than you might think. Oftentimes, AI note takers use your conversation to train their AI models. AI companies often retain these recordings, raising confidentiality concerns. This means that what happens on the video call doesn’t necessarily stay on the video call. Before using AI notetakers, companies should ensure that all parties have consented to the use of such a tool. This includes informing participants the conversation is recorded and that the recording may be shared with a third party. In some cases documenting consent of the participants may be necessary. Additionally, you should know how your AI notetaker retains and shares your data to prevent any breaches in confidentiality.