Losing your voice to AI: Privacy risks of health-related machine listening

Organization

Infoscape Research Lab, Toronto Metropolitan University

Published

2026

Project Leaders

Stephen J. Neville

Greg Elmer

Summary

From our phones and teleconferencing platforms to AI assistants, our voices are constantly turned into data and processed in the cloud. Public attention has focused on the privacy risks of our conversations being overheard by private-sector organizations, however a growing number of companies are developing products that analyze the sounds that our bodies involuntarily produce. This includes voice biometrics, crying, coughing, sneezing, breathing, and snoring.

This project addresses a group of technologies that are termed health-related machine listening (HML). This describes digital applications and devices that produce sensitive health-related data about individuals from audio data. Popular applications of HML include wellness platforms for self-tracking, workplace monitoring, as well as clinical applications.

This project identifies the industry actors that are involved in HML product development and the data practices of these emerging systems. A large-scale analysis was conducted that surfaced over 200 patents linked to 32 unique applications. The results identify the major industry players, the types of audio data being processed, the data subjects targeted by these systems, and diverse application contexts. Additionally, a privacy policy analysis was conducted showing that consent criteria laid out by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada are not currently being fulfilled. Finally, the research team conducted in-depth case studies of three companies to monitor changing data practices and flag major privacy risks.

The team also produced several public-facing resources on the topic including a digital literacy primer, a short educational video, and a guidance document for private-sector organizations.

Project deliverables are available in the following language(s):

English and French

Project website

OPC funded project

This project received funding support through the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s Contributions Program. The opinions expressed in the summary and report(s) are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Summaries have been provided by the project authors. Please note that the projects appear in their language of origin.

Contact information

Greg Elmer
Department of Professional Communication
Toronto Metropolitan University
350 Victoria St.
Toronto, Ontario  M5B 2K3

Email: gelmer@torontomu.ca