Otter.ai accused of using meeting transcripts to train AI without permission

Otter AI class action lawsuit overview:

• Who: Plaintiff Justin Brewer filed a class action lawsuit against Otter.ai Inc.
• Why: Brewer claims Otter.ai records conversations without the consent of all participants.
• Where: The Otter.ai class action was filed in California federal court.

A new class action lawsuit accuses Otter.ai of recording conversations without the consent of all participants.

Plaintiff Justin Brewer filed the class action lawsuit against Otter.ai on Aug. 15 in California federal court, alleging violations of federal and state privacy laws.

Otter.ai provides an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered meeting assistant called Otter Notetaker, which transcribes Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings in real time, according to the lawsuit.

However, the lawsuit alleges Otter.ai records and accesses the contents of private conversations between Otter accountholders who use the Otter Notetaker and meeting participants who do not subscribe to Otter’s services.

Brewer claims Otter.ai does not obtain prior consent from these non-subscribing meeting participants before recording their conversations.

“Moreover, Otter completely fails to disclose to those who do set up Otter to run on virtual meetings, but who are recorded by the Otter Notetaker, that their conversations are being used to train Otter Notetaker’s automatic speech recognition and machine learning models, and in turn, to financially benefit Otter’s business,” the Otter.ai class action says.

Class action: Otter.ai violates federal and state privacy laws

Brewer claims Otter.ai’s actions violate the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the California Invasion of Privacy Act, California’s Comprehensive Computer Data and Fraud Access Act and the California Unfair Competition Law.

Brewer wants to represent a nationwide class of individuals who, since Aug. 15, 2023, had the contents of their conversations read and learned by Otter using the Otter Notetaker or OtterPilot software. 

He also seeks to represent a California subclass of individuals who had their conversations recorded while participating in a meeting hosted in California and/or while they were located in California since Aug. 15, 2021.

He is suing for violations of federal and state privacy laws and seeks certification of the class action, damages, restitution, disgorgement of profits, fees, costs and a jury trial.

In July, Apple Inc. was sued over claims it misled investors about delivering advanced artificial intelligence–based Siri features, allegedly inflating its stock price before it fell when the company announced delays.

What do you think of the allegations made in this Otter.ai class action lawsuit? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiff is represented by Matthew R. Wilson, Jared W. Connors and Ryne E. Tipton of Meyer Wilson Werning Co. LPA and Brian Levin, Brandon T. Grzandziel and Jacob Polin of Levin Law P.A.

The Otter AI class action lawsuit is Brewer v. Otter.ai Inc., Case No. 5:25-cv-06911-EKL, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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