Key Points
- Google has agreed to pay $68 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over its voice assistant.
- The lawsuit accused Google Assistant of illegally recording private conversations.
- The issue was related to “false accepts,” where the assistant would activate by mistake.
- Google denied wrongdoing but settled to avoid a lengthy legal battle. The settlement covers users who were affected since May 2016.
Google has agreed to pay $68 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that accused its voice-activated assistant of illegally recording people’s private conversations. The lawsuit claimed that Google Assistant was “spying” on users to send them targeted ads.
The case centered on what are known as “false accepts.” Google Assistant is designed to activate when it hears “hot words” like “Hey Google” or “Okay Google.” However, users claimed that the assistant was often mishearing other words as the hot words, and then recording and disseminating their private conversations without their permission.
Google has denied any wrongdoing but agreed to the settlement to avoid a long and costly legal battle. The company declined to comment on the matter.
The settlement, which still needs to be approved by a federal judge, will cover anyone who bought a Google device or was a victim of a “false accept” since May 18, 2016.
This is not the first time a tech giant has been in hot water over its voice assistants. Apple reached a similar $95 million settlement with smartphone users in December 2024 over its Siri assistant.
As part of the settlement, the lawyers for the plaintiffs will be seeking about $22.7 million in legal fees. For the millions of affected users, this settlement is a small but significant victory in the ongoing fight for digital privacy.
