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Google preps Pixel ‘Audio Memory’ that ambiently tracks your ‘important conversations,’ like AI notetaker pins (9to5google.com)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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fuck offffff

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[–] 47 points 2 months ago (12 children)

Illegal in Germany. You may not record conversations, if you try to enter something like that as evidence you'll get punished as well.

I suspect there are many countries with laws like that, and if your phone actually disables the feature when you enter them or just let's you hang to dry...

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  • [–] 11 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Doubt. The law likely talks about making unauthorized recordings. There is likely nothing in the law that would disallow automatic transcription if no recording is created.

    Unless the law is extremely vague such as “it is unlawful for a microphone to pick up conversations” the law likely doesn’t cover this situation.

    I am more than happy (and eager) to be proven wrong, but in my experience the law tends to lag behind tech by quite a bit.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    I didn't check the actual law, always a good idea to do so.

    So, §201 StGB actually covers both, it is forbidden to "aufnehmen" (record) as well as "mithören" (spy on). Bonus, its forbidden to cite transcription (im Wortlaut mitteilen).

    Its an old law, going back to video cameras with magnetic tape and actually tapping a phone line. So it was used quite often, including the mentioned fake surveillance cameras, that didn't record or even view anything but seemed to the public they did.

    When dashcams became a thing people would be sentenced for using them. These days you can use dashcams, but never save for more than 24h or show the recording to anyone but the police/court.

    I guess the law is a relict of living next door to Stasi, but its really just a guess of mine.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago* (1 child)

    If huge tech corps are good at anything, it's swerving around laws or simply deciding to ignore them.

    They'll argue that since you consented, it's not spying.

    And they'll put something in the terms that it's your responsibility to inform people around that your or their conversations will be recorded (lol, as if anyone would - but they'll claim that as a defence).

    And if they end up in court and get fined, even millions is just a slap on the wrist compared to how much they made from all that juicy data.

    Laws will not stop them.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    Google is not breaking the (German) law here, it actually is your responsibility as a user to not spy on people. Failure to do so means up to three years in jail, for a first offender most likely a fine. And your device that you used to break the law might get confiscated.

    The later was already the case when people used radar warner apps (banned on Germany as well) and lost their smartphone for that.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    I wonder if there's a legal loophole here? Specifically this works by transcribing "important conversations" into text, it's not actually storing .mp3 recordings. Obviously still disgusting and I hate it.

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  • [–] 27 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

    The legal loophole is Google can afford to pay the fine. They make more money breaking ze law than they do following they law

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  • [–] 8 points 2 months ago

    Not a lawyer, but as far as I got it, the storing isn't the punishable part, the recording is.

    You can't have security cameras filming public spaces (like the road in front of your house). Even if its dummies, as people couldn't tell the difference whether the camera actually films them or not.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    if you try to enter something like that as evidence you’ll get punished as well.

    They'll just use parallel construction

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    No need to, there is no fruit of the poisonous tree in German law. Police can strip search you in bright daylight on a crowded square for no reason - clearly illegal, bit what they find will be used to proscute you. The officers will be punished as well, at most with a stern talking to.

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