Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) made headlines yesterday when it admitted that more than 1,000 sound recordings of customer conversations with the Google Assistant were leaked by its partners to a Belgian news site. Despite the news, GOOGL stock has been rising this week and is up 3.15% on the week. Shares are currently selling for $1,146.08 USD.

GOOGL Stock Climbs

The recordings in question are clippings that Google pulls in order to improve voice responses from its Google Assistant. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) uses a similar practice to help improve the performance of its Echo device. However, the recordings are supposed to be kept under wraps and are entirely confidential.

The controversy occurred on Wednesday when a Belgian news site called VRT said a contractor came to it with samples of these recordings. From the recordings, VRT was able to identify some of the people in the audio clips. Among many things, customer addresses, a woman in distress, and people discussing their medical conditions were divulged.

When approached about the recordings, Google admitted they were leaked. In a blog post discussing the matter, Google product manager of search David Monsees said the following:

“We just learned that one of these language reviewers has violated our data security policies by leaking confidential Dutch audio data […] Our Security and Privacy Response teams have been activated on this issue, are investigating, and we will take action. We are conducting a full review of our safeguards in this space to prevent misconduct like this from happening again.”

GOOGL Stock Doesn’t React

The most worrying aspect of the leaked recordings is that VRT was able to distinguish who some of the voices on the recordings were. This is troublesome for Google, which said that the clippings it uses for research are “not associated with user accounts.” While this may be the case, the anonymity of the voices must not be entirely protected.

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Monsees said further that Google’s partners only listen to “around 0.2 percent of all audio snippets.”

Any Google Assistant users can delete their voice history easily on the device and remove any worry of their voice being leaked.

Interestingly, GOOGL stock did not react negatively to the news. This is a rarity when it comes to leaks within major tech companies. Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), for example, faced huge stock volatility when news of its data leaks emerged in late 2018.

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