Google has agreed to pay $68 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging its voice assistant illegally spied on users. The suit claimed Google Assistant was used to serve targeted advertisements, among other purposes. According to the complaint, Google engaged in the unlawful interception and recording of individuals’ confidential communications without their consent and then shared those communications with third parties.
The case specifically focused on “false accepts,” where the Google Assistant allegedly activated and recorded conversations even when users did not intentionally prompt it with a wake word. Google did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
This settlement taps into a long-standing suspicion among Americans that their devices are inappropriately listening to them, leading to increased legal action. In a similar case from 2021, Apple agreed to pay $95 million to settle claims that its Siri voice assistant had recorded conversations without a user prompt.
Google has faced other significant privacy-related litigation in recent years. Last year, the company agreed to pay $1.4 billion to the state of Texas to settle two lawsuits alleging violations of the state’s data privacy laws.