User data privacy in Google speech to text api / Google cloud speech solution

Question

What level of data privacy is maintained when I used Google speech to text api or google cloud speech solution. I want to know this because I am working on an application which converts audio files into text and those files may contain user sensitive data.

Answer 1

I think this one https://cloud.google.com/speech-to-text/docs/data-logging and that https://cloud.google.com/speech-to-text/docs/data-logging-terms has a more tailored explanation.

To help Cloud Speech-to-Text to better suit your needs, you can opt into the data logging program. The data logging program allows Google to improve the quality of Speech-to-Text through using customer data to refine its speech recognition service. As a benefit for opting in, you gain access to enhanced transcription models that Google has trained by using data collected through the data logging program.

Data Privacy and Security

To help Cloud Speech-to-Text to better suit your needs, you can opt into the data logging program. The data logging program allows Google to improve the quality of Speech-to-Text through using customer data to refine its speech recognition service. As a benefit for opting in, you gain access to enhanced transcription models that Google has trained by using data collected through the data logging program.

It seems it's "opt in" feature where a customer needs to explicitly participate into the program which in return Google gives access to its better models.

And from here https://cloud.google.com/speech-to-text/docs/enable-data-logging :

When you enable data logging, you permit Google to collect data from your audio transcription requests. Google then uses this data to improve its machine learning models used for recognizing speech audio.

Not sure if it implies that if you are opted out, then Google doesn't collect your data.