Google has agreed to pay $68 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that says its voice assistant technology recorded people without their permission. According to Reuters, the settlement ends claims that the Google Assistant was turned on by mistake and that the recorded audio was used for things like targeted ads.
The tech giant didn’t say they did anything wrong, but this case shows that people and the law are still very interested in how voice-activated devices handle private conversations.
Google faces unauthorized recording claims
The main point of the lawsuit was that Google “illegally and on purpose intercepted and recorded people’s private communications without their permission.” The people who sued said that this information was later used to send targeted ads and other things to other people.
“False accepts” were a big technical issue. When a voice assistant, like Google Assistant, turns on and starts recording without the user saying a specific wake word, like “Hey Google,” this happens. TechCrunch says that this case shows that these accidental activations could let people record private conversations without the speaker knowing.
This isn’t the first time the tech industry has settled a big case like this. Apple agreed to pay $95 million to settle similar claims that its Siri voice assistant recorded users without their knowledge in a well-known case from 2021. Big tech companies are facing a lot of lawsuits about privacy, and the company settlement is just one of them.
This $68 million deal is another example of how Google has settled lawsuits about data privacy in the past. Last year, the company agreed to a different $1.4 billion settlement with Texas. The resolution dealt with claims that Google had broken state laws about data privacy. This shows how much more pressure regulators are putting on companies that collect data.
Disclaimer: This article relies on TechCrunch and Reuters reports. It provides information only, not legal or financial advice. Legal settlements do not determine liability, and details may change. For complete and accurate information, readers should consult the original court documents.
