• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, September 5, 2024

Google has been hit with a second privacy lawsuit over its Google Cloud Contact Center AI -- an artificial intelligence service used at call centers operated by some outside companies.

In a complaint filed this week in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, California resident Christopher Barulich alleges that Google “secretly wiretapped” phone calls he placed to Home Depot.

“Google, through its Cloud Contact Center AI, surreptitiously listened in and monitored plaintiff’s communications with Home Depot,” he alleges in a class-action complaint claiming that Google violated California's wiretap law, which prohibits the interception of electronic communications without all parties' consent.

He adds that Google used its technology to transcribe and analyze the conversation, and suggest potential replies to the Home Depot agent who was on the phone.

“In a completely unauthorized manner and without consent from callers, Google eavesdrops, taps, or connects to, calls between plaintiff and class members on one end, and Home Depot on the other end, and reads, attempts to read, or learns the contents of communications between the parties to each call,” the complaint alleges.

Google already faces a similar lawsuit over the generative artificial intelligence tool. That case was initially filed last year by Misael Ambriz, who alleged that Google “eavesdropped” on his conversation with a Verizon employee.

“A Google session manager monitored the conversation between Plaintiff and Verizon, and Google ... transcribed plaintiff’s conversation in real time, analyzed the context of plaintiff’s conversation with Verizon, and suggested 'smart replies' and news articles to the Verizon agent plaintiff was communicating with,” Ambriz alleged in that matter.

Google countered that the allegations against it, even if proven true, would only show that it provided “a software program,” which it described as “the modern equivalent of a tape recorder,” to Verizon.

Among other arguments, Google specifically contended that providing software to outside companies doesn't violate California's wiretap law.

“The law is clear that parties to communications (like Verizon) can use tools (like software provided by other entities) to record or analyze their own conversations with others (like plaintiff),” the company argued in papers filed earier this year with U.S. District Court Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco.

Lin dismissed that matter in June. She said in the ruling that the California wiretap law exempts phone companies like Verizon, and that Google was also exempt in these circumstances because it was acting as Verizon's agent.

Lin's ruling allowed Ambriz to revise his complaint and bring it again, which he did in July. The amended complaint includes allegations by six other plaintiffs who alleged that Google “eavesdropped” on conversations between themselves and Hulu, GoDaddy and Home Depot.

That matter is still pending in front of Lin.