LegalShield AI Lawsuit Alleges Confidential Communications Are Captured Without Consent

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges online legal services provider LegalShield fails to disclose to consumers who communicate with the company that their conversations will be secretly intercepted and analyzed by call center tech provider Talkdesk.

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The 39-page privacy case emphasizes that consumers who contact LegalShield, whether through email, chatbot, phone or text, often share “some of the most intimate details of their life” and reasonably expect those details to remain confidential and privileged. Despite the expectation of privacy and confidentiality, conversations with LegalShield are, unbeknownst to customers, intercepted, listened to, recorded, and used by co-defendant Talkdesk without consent or disclosure, the complaint alleges.

“Defendant LegalShield’s Privacy Policy does not disclose that Talkdesk (or any other third party) is tapping, intercepting, listening to, eavesdropping on, recording, or using customers’ conversations with LegalShield,” the filing mentions. “Indeed, the Privacy Policy implies that no such activities occur.”

According to the case, Talkdesk sells products that enable companies to listen to, record and analyze communications with customers. The suit says Talkdesk “routes every word spoken by callers” directly to its servers in real time, transcribes the conversations as they happen, and uses AI to break down what someone is talking about and determine their “intent and sentiment.” The company has intentionally designed its cloud AI products to intercept customer communications, and in fact touts this feature to clients, the case shares.

“In addition to listening to and recording the calls, Talkdesk uses the communications for its own purposes,” the lawsuit notes. “For example, Talkdesk can use the conversations to enhance and develop its own products and train its own AI models.”

The information shared by consumers with LegalShield, and consequently with Talkdesk, often includes credit history, credit card details, Social Security numbers, income specifics, and similar personal information “clients routinely share with their attorneys,” the case specifies. Per the suit, consumers who contact LegalShield would not have communicated with the company had they known their conversations would be intercepted by Talkdesk.

The LegalShield Talkdesk lawsuit looks to cover all California residents who made or received an email, chatbot chat, call, or text message by a company that uses Talkdesk’s products.

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