Google won dismissal of a lawsuit claiming its Contact Center AI violated California’s wiretap law by listening to, transcribing, and analyzing customers’ calls to Home Depot without their consent, but US District Judge Rita Lin is letting the plaintiffs revise and refile. Two of the three plaintiffs had Home Depot accounts, and Lin found they had accepted a privacy policy saying calls may be recorded and shared for “software-based customer care analysis.” The third had no account, but Lin said the complaint offered no facts showing Google meant to listen without consent, noting that listening to calls is exactly what the product is built to do. Lin also sent similar claims from Verizon, Uber, and Discover customers to arbitration, which those companies require.
