I’ve been waiting for this for a while now! I just received my invite to Google Voice! I must say, I’ve used a few of these types of services like CallWave, YouPhone, etc… for a free service, this looks pretty sweet. The one thing I am concerned about is the fact that Google will undoubtedly be running the voice processing similar to what it uses to transcribe your voicemails to monitor conversations and recorded calls for marketing purposes. From the Privacy Policy:
Personal Information section
* Google Voice stores, processes and maintains your call history, voicemail greeting(s), voicemail messages, Short Message Service (SMS) messages, recorded conversations, and other data related to your account in order to provide the service to you.
* When you use Google Voice, Google’s servers automatically record certain information about your use of Google Voice. Similar to other web services, Google Voice records information such as account activity (including storage usage, number of log-ins), data displayed or clicked on (including UI elements, links); and other log information (including browser type, IP-address, date and time of access, cookie ID, and referrer URL). Google’s servers also automatically collect telephony log information (including calling-party number, forwarding numbers, time and date of calls, duration of calls, SMS routing information, and types of calls).
Uses section
* Google maintains and processes your Google Voice account and its contents to provide the Google Voice service to you and to improve our services.
* Google’s computers process the information in your messages for various purposes, including formatting and displaying the information to you, playing you your messages, backing up your messages, and other purposes relating to offering you Google Voice.
* Google may send you information related to your Google Voice account or other Google services.
* Voicemail Transcription – if you use Google Voice’s voicemail transcription service, Google may transcribe voicemail messages into text and email and/or SMS the resulting text to the email account or phone number(s) designated in your user settings. Google’s computers process the information in your messages for various purposes, including formatting and displaying the information to you, delivering related links, backing up your messages, and other purposes relating to offering you Google Voice.
