By default, Speech-to-Text does not log customer audio data or transcripts. To help Speech-to-Text to better suit your needs, you can opt into the data logging program. The data logging program allows Google to improve the quality of Speech-to-Text through using customer data to refine its speech recognition service. As a benefit for opting in, you gain access to discounted pricing.
People love to hate on Google here apparently, inconvenient facts to the contrary aside.
Yeah, they could by lying - but they'd be opening themselves up to lawsuits for questionable gain. It would be a dumb risk/reward calculation. That's not to say companies (or people) don't do dumb things, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt until we have reason to believe otherwise.
In fact, one of the early “AI/ML” transcription services (which at the time blew away competitors including Google) turned out to be almost zero machine processing, almost entirely a human transcription farm in Egypt.
With almost 100% of the services, including those provided by members of FAANG, admitting this, it seems the risk/reward calc didn’t deter, and a “give the benefit of the doubt” algo seems inappropriate.
I'm not sure what happened, but there used to be a time where not trusting a company like Google would be the smart stance to take. How could anyone with that much power possibly be trustworthy?
No point complaining that other people are willing to do business with them.