Otter AI transcript included confidential conversations after meeting ended
Otter AI's transcription service automatically sent a meeting transcript to researcher Alex Bilzerian that included hours of private conversations between venture capitalists that continued after the official meeting ended, exposing confidential business information he was not intended to receive.
What happened
Otter AI, a transcription service with more than 14 million users, automatically emailed a meeting transcript to researcher Alex Bilzerian after a Zoom call with a venture capital firm ended.
The transcript included hours of private conversations between the venture capitalists that occurred after Bilzerian had logged off, containing what he described as intimate, confidential details about their business.
Reported impact
Bilzerian received confidential business information he was not meant to see from the venture capital firm.
Bilzerian decided to end the business deal with the firm as a result of the incident.
Index analysis
Otter AI stated that users have full control over transcript sharing permissions and can change, update, or stop sharing settings at any time.
An associate professor at Northwestern University noted that the reasonable assumption that AI assistants would detect when participants exit a meeting is not always accurate with current technology.
Governance controls
Otter AI said users have the option not to share transcripts automatically with anyone, or to auto-share conversations only with users who share the same Workspace domain.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.