Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  08/19/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Read.AI mines all the contact information from meeting participants and starts spamming everyone who participated in the meeting. In the event that group emails exist, those are spammed as well. When external meeting participants join, this cannot be blocked. Read.AI posts a note in the chat and does not seek permission before recording the meeting and mining data. This means that it collects sensitive information without approval.The meeting host should have to approve the collection of data by this application before it collects anything. This application violates privacy, beware!

  Business response

  08/20/2024

  Read user account settings determine who will get access to the meeting reports that they own on Read, as well as whether or not meeting participants receive emails with the meeting recap. Read meeting report owners have full control over who the content is shared with, and automatic sharing of meeting reports with meeting participants can be turned off at any time.

  When joining a meeting, Read will do the following:
  1) Request permission to join the call (varies depending on platform and settings).
  2) Once in the meeting, Read will attempt to request recording permissions from the host (Zoom only)
  3) After joining the meeting, Read will appear as a named participant, where the host can remove at any time.
  4) Read will notify users in chat that it has joined the meeting, and a quick way to remove Read is to type "opt out". Any meeting participant can type "opt out" to kick Read out and delete all meeting data.
  5) Read will list the name(s) of who invited Read in the chat.

  In no instance does Read randomly join meetings, it has to be added by a user who has been invited to the meeting for the purpose of generating a meeting report. Additionally, the meeting host must have admitted Read and allowed recording in order for Read to generate a meeting report.
  

  Customer response

  08/27/2024

   
  Complaint: 22166498
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  The listed procedures are not actually followed. **** did not ask permission to join the meeting or to record the meeting. I was the host and would not have given those permissions to any AI app. The procedures indicate that Read will attempt to request recording permissions. This appears to mean that if that attempt fails, it just goes ahead and records it regardless.
  
  External meeting participants should not be the ones that give permission for Read to join the meeting as they are not the host. Just because **** automatically joins the meeting on behalf of an invitee and then adds a message in the chat does not mean it has permission to record the meeting. As previously stated, **** also scraped all of the invitee emails from the meeting and sent out meeting minutes to all invitees regardless of their attendance. Mining contact information is unacceptable and thats exactly what is happening. Just because someone was invited to a meeting does not give them permission to allow software to mine participant and invitee data and use it for marketing purposes.
  
  Please stop these invasive procedures, this is a clear violation of privacy for meeting participants.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************

• Initial Complaint

  08/14/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Read.ai was added to a meeting by a coworker and at the end compiled notes of the meeting with a link to read meeting notes. I clicked the link in which I was prompted to create an account in order to read them, thinking this was a company sponsored app I created an account. I did not finish setting up an account, I did not add any extensions from this company. Apparently by creating an account this company added itself to every meeting through ********* teams that I was invited to, but it did not show as being invited in the invite list, it just shows up when the meeting started, announced it was recording notes on my request (I did not request it), and then proceeded to record private confidential data from a company meeting that no one opted-in to. Apparently by making a read.ai account, you give it full permission to join and record all data for your meetings, you can go into your account and opt out after you learn this information, but you are never clearly told this is the default, and this is not only a dark pattern, but a HUGE violation of people's privacy. Also, only one person from the meeting has to have this app installed for it to insert itself into your meeting.

  Business response

  08/14/2024

  When you sign-up for an account, we list the settings including what meetings you request us to join, and when reports are shared.  In certain cases, when someone clicks through the onboarding process, they may have not reviewed and customized settings.  In addition, Read is unable to connect any account unless a user goes through the steps to connect a video conferencing or calendar platform and gives Read permission.   

  To change, it is easy to do.  

  Change Join Preferences:  *****************************************************************************************************************

  Delete Account:  ***********************************************************************************
  

   

• Initial Complaint

  07/22/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  This service is for recording meetings but makes it exceptionally difficult to opt out of and the functions for opting out do not always work. It is crawling data without consent from all involved. The business is not adhering to it's terms of use by allowing people to opt out. It is also a security issue as once it latches on to a meeting, government, internal business or otherwise, this broken system of opting out means you cannot stop it as it indicates.

  Business response

  07/23/2024

  There are a few ways to stop or control which meetings Read joins (before, in, or after the meeting): ***********************************************************************************************************
  

   

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