Google Settles Class Action Lawsuit for $68 Million
Google has come to an agreement to pay $68 million to resolve a class action lawsuit that accused its voice-activated assistant of breaching user privacy by recording conversations without consent.
This preliminary settlement was submitted on Friday in a federal court in San Jose, California, although it still awaits approval from U.S. District Judge Beth Rabson Freeman.
The lawsuit claimed that Google illegally recorded and shared private conversations, particularly after the Google Assistant was triggered, leading to targeted advertising based on those conversations.
In the complaint, it was outlined that Google Assistant, which should only record when users say “Hey Google” or “OK Google,” improperly captured private dialogues without users’ awareness, even when those “hot words” weren’t used. This behavior affected users of various Google devices, including smartphones, home speakers, laptops, tablets, Chromecast media players, and even wireless earbuds.
Allegations also indicated that users were targeted with advertisements based on discussions that occurred when they didn’t attempt to activate their devices.
In court documents, Google did not concede any wrongdoing but noted it chose to settle in order to avoid the potential “uncertainty, risk, expense, inconvenience, and disruption” associated with ongoing litigation.
Legal representatives for the plaintiffs might seek approximately $22.7 million in fees from the settlement amount.
In December 2024, Apple reached a similar agreement with smartphone users for $95 million regarding its virtual assistant, Siri.
Google has a history of settling privacy-related lawsuits as seen in its prior agreement to pay $1.4 billion to Texas over claims of unauthorized data collection. In September, the company was ordered to compensate $425.7 million for infringing user privacy by gathering data on millions who had opted out of tracking. Furthermore, in 2024, Google agreed to eliminate billions of data records connected to users’ private browsing activities to settle a lawsuit regarding tracking individuals believed to be using “incognito” mode.
