Google Pays $68M To Settle Claims Its Voice Assistant Spied On Users
Google has agreed to pay $68 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging its Google Assistant recorded and shared users’ private conversations without consent.
Google Settles Google Assistant Privacy Lawsuit
A preliminary settlement was filed January 23 in federal court in San Jose, California, according to Reuters. Google did not admit wrongdoing, but agreed to settle, citing the cost, risk, and uncertainty of prolonged litigation. The settlement includes $22.7 million in attorneys’ fees.
The lawsuit centers on how voice assistants are engineered, deployed, and monetized. Plaintiffs alleged that Google Assistant recorded audio after mistakenly detecting its activation phrases, “Hey Google” or “OK Google,” a technical issue known as “false accepts.” Plaintiffs argued that these recordings were shared and used to support targeted advertising, violating user privacy protections.
“False accepts”
Google Assistant launched in 2016 as Alphabet’s push to make conversational interfaces a core layer across devices and services, according to TechCrunch. The assistant was integrated into chatbot Allo and Google Home, and positioned against Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri.
“Think of the assistant, we think of it as a conversational assistant, we want users to have an ongoing two-way dialog,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said, according to TechCrunch.
The lawsuit centers on whether accidental activations and downstream data use crossed legal lines. Plaintiffs said they noticed targeted advertisements after the alleged recordings, according to Reuters.
$68M Settlement Raises Stakes for Voice AI
The settlement applies to users who purchased Google devices or experienced “false accepts” dating back to May 18, 2016. Final approval is still pending and must be granted by US District Judge Beth Labson Freeman.
The agreement arrives as other tech companies face similar challenges. Apple recently agreed to pay $95 million in a proposed class-action settlement over allegations that Siri recorded users after unintended activations and shared data with advertisers. Like Google, Apple denied any wrongdoing.
Image credit: Android Central
