Otter.ai is very popular among journalists to record interviews with real-time transcription may be listening to your recordings. It offers automated services which makes it reporter friendly.
Many political journalists like Phelim Kine have used the Otter app to record the interview call. With the help of this app, the journalist interviewed Aksu, Washington, DC-based Uyghur Human Rights Project.
And, a day later, the journalist received a message from Otter, asking about the purpose of the conversation with Aksu.
“Hey Phelim, to help us improve your Otter’s experience, what was the purpose of this particular recording with titled ‘Mustafa Aksu’ created at ‘2021-11-08 11:02:41′?” the journalist was asked.
Three responses were offered: “Personal transcription,” “Meeting or group collaboration,” and “Other.”
“I froze. Was this a phishing attack? Was Otter or some entity that had access to Otter’s servers spying on my conversations?” said Kine.
He contacted Otter to verify if this was indeed a real survey or some clever phishing ruse.
An initial confirmation that the survey was legitimate was followed by a denial from the same Otter representative, laced with a warning that I “not respond to that survey and delete it.”
“My communications with Otter were all restricted to email and were sporadic, often confusing and contradictory”.
Otter’s Public Relations Manager, Mitchell Woodrow, told The Verge: “To be clear, unless we are legally compelled to do so by a valid United States legal subpoena, we will not ever share any of your data, including data files, with any foreign government or law enforcement agencies.”
It’s, however, an important wakeup call as automated transcription services are being widely used globally but the vulnerability of the data and services are overlooked many a times.
