{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-11-07T02:56:58.203Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"privacy","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"2019","response":"regulatory","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":2,"coverage":{"cases":2,"countries":2,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":2,"minors":0,"coreRelations":0,"contextualRelations":2,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2019-flanders-google-assistant-recordings-leaked-by-contract-reviewer-some-captured-without-wake-word","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'VRT NWS was able to listen to more than a thousand excerpts recorded via Google Assistant'; 'In the aftermath of the Amazon case, we were able to talk to someone who works for a Google subcontractor'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'we partner with language experts around the world who understand the nuances and accents of a specific language'; 'one of these language reviewers has violated our data security policies by leaking confidential Dutch audio data'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Excerpts of audio recorded by Google Home speakers and the Google Assistant app were transcribed by contract language reviewers, and more than a thousand Dutch-language excerpts reached VRT NWS from someone working for a Google subcontractor.","causal_attribution":"Reported by VRT from its own access to the excerpts; Google confirms that a language reviewer leaked Dutch audio data."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'153 of which were conversations that should never have been recorded and during which the command ‘Okay Google’ was clearly not given.'; 'as soon as someone in the vicinity utters a word that sounds a bit like ’Okay Google’, Google Home starts to record.'; 'Most of these recordings were made consciously, but Google also listens to conversations that should never have been recorded'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"VRT says 153 of the excerpts were conversations in which the command \"Okay Google\" was clearly not given, recorded when the speaker reacted to words that sound like it; it says most of the recordings it heard were made consciously.","causal_attribution":"VRT's count from its own listening; Google does not give a count for the leaked set."},{"id":"c3","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'Rarely, devices that have the Google Assistant built in may experience what we call a “false accept.”'; 'that our software interpreted to be the hotword'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Google says devices with the Assistant built in may rarely have a \"false accept\", when its software interprets background noise or words as the hotword.","causal_attribution":"The company's own published description of how its hotword detection can misfire."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'In these recordings we could clearly hear addresses and other sensitive information. This made it easy for us to find the people involved and confront them with the audio recordings.'; 'We let ordinary Flemish people hear some of their own recordings.'; 'immediately recognise the voice of their son and their grandchild'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"VRT says it could hear addresses and other sensitive information in the recordings, found the people involved, and played them their recordings; one man recognised his own voice and a couple recognised the voices of their son and grandchild.","causal_attribution":"VRT's own account of identifying people from the leaked recordings."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'bedroom conversations, conversations between parents and their children, but also blazing rows and professional phone calls containing lots of private information'; 'he heard a woman who was in definite distress'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"VRT describes unintended recordings of bedroom conversations, conversations between parents and children, rows and professional calls, and a reviewer who described a recording of a woman in definite distress.","causal_attribution":"VRT's description of the content, including a reviewer's account relayed by VRT."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'These are not linked to any personal or identifiable information'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'Audio snippets are not associated with user accounts as part of the review process, and reviewers are directed not to transcribe background conversations or other noises'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Google said the excerpts reviewed were not linked to personal or identifiable information and that reviewers are directed not to transcribe background conversations.","causal_attribution":"Google's position, recorded as context to VRT's identification of people."},{"id":"c7","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'taking the decision to manually suspend audio reviews of Google Assistant across the whole of Europe, and doing so on July 10, after learning of the data leak'; 'Google Ireland filed an Article 33 breach notification'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"According to TechCrunch, Google suspended manual reviews of Assistant audio across Europe on 10 July 2019 after learning of the leak, and Google Ireland filed a breach notification with the Irish Data Protection Commission.","causal_attribution":"Google's and the Irish regulator's statements as relayed by TechCrunch."},{"id":"c8","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'begin an “urgency procedure” under Article 66'; 'have committed to the continued suspension of processing for a period of at least three months starting today (1 August)'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"According to TechCrunch, the Hamburg data protection authority began an urgency procedure under Article 66 of the GDPR against the human reviews, and the Irish regulator said Google had committed to continue the suspension for at least three months from 1 August 2019.","causal_attribution":"Regulators' statements as relayed by TechCrunch; the Hamburg statement itself was not read."}],"effects":[{"label":"Private household recordings held by the Assistant service, some made without the wake phrase, leaked to journalists who identified people in them","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2019/07/10/google-employees-are-eavesdropping-even-in-flemish-living-rooms/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-28 (vrt.be, HTTP 200, the broadcaster's English-language version of its report). The embedded video report was not watched. No translation was needed; the research agent (an AI) read the text directly.","independence_group":"vrt-nws-google-assistant-leak"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://blog.google/products/assistant/more-information-about-our-processes-safeguard-speech-data/","kind":"company_statement","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-28 (blog.google, HTTP 200 after redirect to the current blog path). The page metadata gives a publication date of 11 July 2019. No translation was needed.","independence_group":"google-statement-speech-data"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/02/google-ordered-to-halt-human-review-of-voice-ai-recordings-over-privacy-risks/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-28 (techcrunch.com, HTTP 200). It relays the Hamburg authority's German statement, an Irish Data Protection Commission statement and Google statements; the Hamburg statement itself was not read (its old URL returned 404). Its account of the leak relays VRT. No translation was needed.","independence_group":"techcrunch-hamburg-order"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["unknown"],"contexts":["privacy","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["When the leaked recordings were made.","Whether the identified people's recordings were among those made without the wake phrase.","Whether the people identified were the owners or users of the devices.","How many people were heard in the leaked excerpts.","What the Hamburg authority finally decided and how Google later changed its review practices (not inspected)."],"geography":{"basis":"VRT says it played recordings to ordinary Flemish people it identified from the excerpts, which places the identified people and the disclosure to them in Belgium. The reviewers worked on Dutch recordings for Flanders and the Netherlands; no Dutch person is described.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["BE"],"affected_person_countries":["BE"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as an actual disclosure of private information captured by an AI voice assistant: VRT NWS heard more than a thousand Assistant recordings leaked by a contract reviewer, 153 made without the wake phrase, and identified people from them; Google confirmed the leak and described false accepts of its hotword detection. The harm counted is the disclosure of conversations captured without the wake phrase; VRT says most recordings were made consciously, so the people it identified are not counted. Regulatory responses are attributed to TechCrunch's report of the regulators' statements.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-28"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The Google Assistant recorded audio from Google Home speakers and the Assistant app into Google's speech service; VRT says 153 of the leaked excerpts were conversations in which \"Okay Google\" was not said, and Google states that its software sometimes interprets background noise or words as the hotword (a false accept). Excerpts held by the Assistant service were given to contract language reviewers, one of whom, Google confirms, leaked Dutch audio; VRT used addresses and other details in the recordings to identify people, who recognised their own and relatives' voices. VRT says most of the recordings it heard were made consciously; the AI system's own contribution is the capture of conversations without the wake phrase, and VRT does not say whether the people it identified were heard in those recordings.","status":"supported"},"person_relations":["received_personal_information"]},"name":"Belgian broadcaster says a Google contract reviewer leaked over 1,000 Assistant recordings, some made without the wake phrase, and it identified people in them","summary":"On 10 July 2019 the Belgian public broadcaster VRT NWS reported that it had listened to more than a thousand audio excerpts recorded by Google Home smart speakers and the Google Assistant phone app, passed to it by someone working for a Google subcontractor that transcribes Dutch-language recordings to improve Google's speech recognition. VRT said 153 of the excerpts were conversations in which \"Okay Google\" was clearly not said, and that it could hear addresses and other sensitive information, which let it find and visit people in Flanders who recognised their own or relatives' voices. Google said one of its language reviewers had leaked confidential Dutch audio data, and explained that its devices rarely have \"false accepts\", when background noise or words are interpreted as the hotword. Google suspended human review of Assistant audio in Europe, and the Hamburg data protection authority began an urgency procedure under Article 66 of the GDPR to stop the reviews for three months, according to TechCrunch.","incidentDate":"2019-01-01","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"year","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2019-07-10","aiSystem":"Google Assistant voice assistant on Google Home smart speakers and the Google Assistant smartphone app, with hotword detection and speech recognition; excerpts of its recordings were transcribed by contract language reviewers","aiProduct":"Google Assistant","aiCompany":"Google","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["other_material_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"VRT NWS says it heard more than a thousand leaked Google Assistant recordings, 153 made without \"Okay Google\", and identified people in them; Google confirmed a reviewer leaked Dutch audio (loss of privacy).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"unquantified","affectedCountEvidence":"VRT NWS says 153 of the more than a thousand excerpts it heard were conversations recorded without \"Okay Google\" being said; those are the recordings the AI system captured without the speakers' knowledge, and the number of people heard in them is not reported, so the count is unquantified. VRT says most of the recordings were made consciously, and it does not say whether the people it identified (a man who recognised his own voice; a couple who recognised their son and grandchild) were heard in recordings made without the wake phrase, so they are not counted.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","jurisdiction":"unknown","platformType":"assistant","outcomeType":"regulatory_action","outcomeStatus":"unknown","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2019/07/10/google-employees-are-eavesdropping-even-in-flemish-living-rooms/","primarySourceLabel":"VRT NWS, 10 July 2019: Google employees are eavesdropping, even in your living room, VRT NWS has discovered","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-28T03:09:05.610569+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-28T03:09:05.610569+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["voice-assistant","smart-speaker","false-activation","human-review","recording-leak","privacy","gdpr","regulator-action"]},{"id":"2019-us-rite-aid-facial-recognition-false-matches-led-staff-to-search-and-eject-shoppers-ftc-says","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'The technology generated alerts sent to Rite Aid’s employees, including by email or mobile phone application notifications (“match alerts”), indicating that individuals who had entered Rite Aid stores were matches for entries in Rite Aid’s watchlist database.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Rite Aid used facial recognition in its stores to send employees match alerts saying that people entering were matches for its watchlist database, and employees acted on the alerts.","causal_attribution":"FTC allegation; Rite Aid neither admits nor denies."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'In numerous instances, the match alerts that led to these actions were false positives' and 'Rite Aid employees recorded thousands of false positive match alerts between December 2019 and July 2020.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The FTC alleges that in numerous instances the alerts that led employees to watch, eject, accuse, search or report customers to police were false positives, and that employees recorded thousands of false-positive alerts between December 2019 and July 2020.","causal_attribution":"FTC allegation from Rite Aid records; not adjudicated."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Rite Aid employees stopped and searched an 11-year-old girl on the basis of a false- positive facial recognition match. The girl’s mother told Rite Aid that she had missed work because her daughter was so distraught by the incident.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Employees stopped and searched an 11-year-old girl on a false-positive match; her mother told Rite Aid she missed work because her daughter was so distraught.","causal_attribution":"FTC allegation based on a complaint to Rite Aid."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'an alert indicating that a consumer—' and 'specifically a Black woman—was a match for an enrollment image that Rite Aid employees' and 'described as depicting “a white lady with blonde hair.” In response to the alert, Rite Aid' and 'employees called the police and asked the woman to leave the store before realizing the alert was'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The system matched a Black woman to an enrollment image employees described as a white woman with blonde hair; employees called the police and asked her to leave before realising the alert was false.","causal_attribution":"FTC allegation drawn from Rite Aid's internal investigation."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Consumers complained to Rite Aid that they had experienced humiliation and feelings of stigmatization as a result of being confronted' and '[E]very black man is not [a] thief nor should they be made to feel like one' and 'I feel different from this experience when I walk into a store now it’s weird.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Customers complained of humiliation and stigmatisation from false-positive stops; one wrote of feeling different entering stores afterwards and of being made to feel like a thief.","causal_attribution":"Consumer complaints as quoted by the FTC."},{"id":"c6","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'are prohibited for five (5) years from the effective date of this Order from deploying or using, or assisting in the deployment or use of, any Facial Recognition or Analysis System' and 'Defendants neither admit nor deny any of the allegations in the Complaint'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Rite Aid agreed to a proposed stipulated order prohibiting it for five years from using facial recognition or analysis systems in retail stores, while neither admitting nor denying the complaint's allegations.","causal_attribution":"Terms of the filed proposed order; its entry by the court was not inspected."}],"effects":[{"label":"girl stopped and searched on a false facial-recognition match","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"},{"label":"police called and customer asked to leave on a false match","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"},{"label":"humiliation and stigmatisation from false-positive stops","claim_id":"c5","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/2023190_riteaid_complaint_filed.pdf","kind":"court_filing","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-22 from the Internet Archive capture (ftc.gov direct returned 404); no translation needed. FTC complaint, E.D. Pa. 2:23-cv-05023, Document 1, filed 19 Dec 2023; the text of page 1 was not extractable.","independence_group":"ftc-v-rite-aid-2023-filings"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/2023190_riteaid_stipulated_order_filed.pdf","kind":"court_filing","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-22 from the Internet Archive capture (ftc.gov direct returned 404); no translation needed. Proposed stipulated order and attached decision and order, Document 2-2, filed 19 Dec 2023.","independence_group":"ftc-v-rite-aid-2023-filings"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["everyday_life","privacy"],"unknowns":["When and where the girl was searched and the police were called on the woman.","Which vendors supplied the technology (the complaint does not name them in the text read).","Whether and when the court entered the proposed order.","How many customers were stopped, searched or ejected on false matches."],"geography":{"basis":"The complaint places Rite Aid's facial recognition use in its US stores (New York City, Los Angeles and other US cities); it was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The described customers' countries are not stated.","court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a contextual case (made_claim_about, informed_decision_about): the FTC alleges Rite Aid's facial recognition wrongly matched customers to a watchlist and staff acted on the false alerts by searching an 11-year-old girl and calling police on a woman; Rite Aid agreed to a five-year ban without admitting the allegations.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The FTC complaint says Rite Aid's facial recognition system compared customers' faces with a watchlist and sent employees match alerts, that the alerts were in numerous instances false positives (the system wrongly identified a person as someone in the database), and that employees acted on those false alerts by searching an 11-year-old girl, calling police on a Black woman and asking customers to leave. The system's own wrong matches are the alleged error; Rite Aid neither admits nor denies.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["made_claim_about","informed_decision_about"]},"name":"US: FTC says Rite Aid's facial recognition falsely matched shoppers to a watchlist, leading staff to search an 11-year-old girl and call police on a woman","summary":"In a complaint filed in federal court in Pennsylvania on 19 December 2023, the US Federal Trade Commission alleged that the pharmacy chain Rite Aid used facial recognition in its stores to match customers against a database of people it suspected of shoplifting or other wrongdoing, and that staff acted on the match alerts by following, searching, ejecting and publicly accusing customers and by calling the police. The FTC says many alerts were false positives: employees recorded thousands of false-positive alerts between December 2019 and July 2020, staff stopped and searched an 11-year-old girl on a false match, and employees called the police on a Black woman matched to an image of a white woman with blonde hair. Rite Aid agreed to a proposed order barring it from using facial recognition in retail stores for five years, without admitting or denying the allegations.","incidentDate":"2019-12-01","incidentEndDate":"2020-07-01","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"month","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2023-12-19","aiSystem":"Facial recognition technology from two vendors (not named in the complaint) that Rite Aid deployed in its stores to compare customers' faces with a watchlist database and send match alerts to employees","aiProduct":"Unidentified facial recognition system","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["psychological_distress","reputational_harm","other_material_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The FTC alleges that false facial-recognition matches led Rite Aid staff to search, eject, publicly accuse and call police on customers, including an 11-year-old girl who was searched and a Black woman on whom police were called; customers described humiliation and stigmatisation.","frameworkFacets":[],"pathwayDirection":"inward","causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":3,"affectedCountStatus":"partial","affectedCountEvidence":"Three people described individually in the complaint: the 11-year-old girl searched on a false match, the Black woman on whom police were called, and the customer who wrote about being treated as a thief. The complaint's thousands of recorded false-positive alerts are alerts, not counted people, so others remain unquantified.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","jurisdiction":"US","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"regulatory_action","outcomeStatus":"unknown","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/2023190_riteaid_complaint_filed.pdf","primarySourceLabel":"FTC v. Rite Aid Corp., E.D. Pa. 2:23-cv-05023, complaint filed 19 Dec 2023","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-22T03:13:38.451275+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-22T03:13:38.451275+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["facial_recognition","retail","alleged_false_match","ftc"]}]}