Otter.ai is an AI-powered meeting assistant that helps customers record, transcribe and summarize their meetings. The tool advertises itself as integrating seamlessly with platforms like Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams.
A class-action lawsuit recently filed accuses Otter.ai of unlawfully recording and processing private conversations held during video meetings. The suit alleges that Otter.ai used these recordings to train its machine learning models, violating both federal and California privacy laws, and failed to sufficiently notify or secure permission from meeting participants whose conversations were captured.
There is a known Otter.ai presence at Ohio State. The intent of this communication is to make faculty and staff aware so they can make an informed decision about continuing to use Otter.ai.
- Ohio State provides university-approved tools such as Microsoft Teams and CarmenZoom that allow you to record and transcribe your video meetings. Use them. Both tools inform meeting attendees when a meeting is being recorded.
- Ohio State commits to providing clear notice about how personal information is collected, used, and shared. Recording someone without their knowledge directly violates this principle.
- The university emphasizes honoring individual choices when collecting personal information. Secret recordings bypass this entirely.
For clarification on this topic or questions around AI, privacy and cybersecurity, email securityawareness@osu.edu.