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February 16, 2022 10:40 pm

Otter.ai Transcription Service, Widely Used By Journalists, Has Security Concerns

FriendlySolipsist writes: After using the Otter.ai automated transcription service for a recorded interview with an Uyghur human rights activist, Politico journalist Phelim Kine received a disturbing survey from the company asking the purpose of the interview. This was cause for alarm, as the Chinese government is known to aggressively persecute members of the oppressed ethnic and religious minority. Had Chinese intelligence somehow gained access to the recording? Otter eventually provided assurance they do not share uploaded data except pursuant to a valid U.S. subpoena, but journalists need to consider the risk of compromise. Otter does not even allow two-factor authentication except for upper-tier business accounts. "The Freedom of the Press Foundation report recommends that users protect the integrity of data that they commit to transcription app cloud servers with strong passwords and choosing providers that offer two-factor authentication," says Kine. "And it advises users to download and then delete their audio transcripts -- cutting and pasting it to another platform such as Word or Google docs -- to remove them from company servers to reduce exposure risk. But those are individual stopgap solutions in the absence of what cybersecurity experts say is a much-needed federal data privacy law that covers all corporate use of consumer data." "Until those laws change, journalists and others who rely on transcription apps need to carefully consider the potential dangers."

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