Google has agreed to pay $68 million to resolve allegations that its voice assistant illegally monitored users to serve them ads, according to Reuters.
In the settlement of this class-action lawsuit, Google did not admit to any wrongdoing. The case accused the company of “unlawful and intentional interception and recording of individuals’ confidential communications without their consent, and unauthorized disclosure of those communications to third parties.” It also claimed that information obtained from these recordings was improperly shared with third parties for targeted advertising and other uses.
The lawsuit focused on incidents termed “false accepts,” where Google Assistant is said to have been activated and recorded user conversations without the user’s intention to prompt it with a wake word. TechCrunch reached out to Google for a comment on the matter.
Many Americans have long felt that their devices might be spying on them inappropriately, leading to increasing legal claims. For instance, in 2021, Apple settled similar claims for $95 million, accused of having Siri record conversations without user prompts.
Like other major tech firms, Google has encountered numerous privacy-related lawsuits in recent years. Last year, the company agreed to pay $1.4 billion to Texas to settle two lawsuits alleging violations of the state’s data privacy laws.
