Otter AI’s transcription service offers an “assistant” feature specifically for transcribing video meetings. The “Otter Notetaker” can attend Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams calls to document conversations among participants in real-time. A class action lawsuit filed on Friday contends that Otter’s Notetaker records not just those who have opted in for recordings but also individuals who have not subscribed or agreed to being recorded.

The lawsuit further asserts that Otter fails to inform users that the transcriptions are utilized for training its speech recognition and machine learning systems.

Justin Brewer, a resident of California, is initiating the lawsuit on behalf of himself and other Californians and Americans, claiming that Otter intercepted his conversations. The legal action alleges that Otter breaches federal and California laws, such as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 and the California Invasion of Privacy Act.

Brewer, who does not have an Otter account, took part in a Zoom meeting in February where the Otter Notetaker was employed. He was not aware that Otter would gather and keep the data for the purpose of training its tools. Brewer did not provide consent for this and asserts that his privacy was violated, leading to risks and adverse consequences due to Otter’s legal infractions.

Otter’s privacy policy mentions that it trains its AI on “de-identified” audio recordings and claims to seek explicit consent to access conversations for training purposes. However, the lawsuit indicates that Otter Notetaker only requests consent from the meeting host and does not permit other participants to disable it.

Mashable has reached out to Otter for a statement.