As with regular chats in Duck.ai, voice chats are private, anonymized by us, and not used to train AI models. Audio is not stored by DuckDuckGo or by OpenAI (the model provider for all voice chats) after the chat ends, and we do not use audio to identify you. However, your voice is unique to you and can be a biometric identifier. We want you to understand this risk and make an informed choice before using voice chat.
How voice chat works
When you start a voice chat, Duck.ai connects you to an OpenAI model through an encrypted relay connection that we cannot decrypt. Your microphone audio is streamed in real time to OpenAI, where the model listens, transcribes what you say, and generates both a spoken and text response. As with text chats, there's a daily limit on voice chats. DuckDuckGo subscribers have access to higher usage limits than the free version of Duck.ai.
How your voice data is handled
DuckDuckGo protects your audio stream and voice data in several ways, to ensure it can only be accessed by OpenAI, (the model provider for voice chats) and only for the purpose of responding to your prompts:
- Ephemeral processing: Your live audio is streamed only while you’re speaking. Once the session ends, neither DuckDuckGo nor OpenAI keeps recordings of your voice.
- No training: Your audio and the model’s responses are not used to train AI models.
- Secure connection: Audio streams are encrypted in transit through WebRTC and our relay server.
- Zero data retention: Neither DuckDuckGo nor OpenAI retains any conversation data after you end a voice chat.
About your voice and biometric data
Your unaltered voice is unique to you, meaning it can act as a biometric identifier and could theoretically be used to recognize you. DuckDuckGo does not attempt to identify, fingerprint, or link voices to users, and OpenAI is contractually limited in how they can use voice chat data to what is necessary to perform their services.
You can always opt out of voice chat entirely, and even when voice chat is enabled, your audio is only streamed when you initiate a voice chat and stops streaming immediately when you end it. To opt-out, go to Duck.ai settings and disable the voice chat toggle. Once you've disabled voice chat, you'll need to re-enable it in Duck.ai settings before you can use it again.
Please also see our Duck.ai Privacy Policy