Google settles voice assistant privacy lawsuit for $68 million

Google has agreed to pay $68 million to settle claims that its voice assistant illegally spied on users to serve them advertisements, Reuters reported. The settlement resolves a class-action lawsuit—which is a lawsuit where one or more parties file a complaint on behalf of a larger group. Google did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement of this case. The legal dispute centered on the technical phenomenon of “false accepts,” which is the technical term for when a voice assistant activates and records user communications without the user saying the wake word. A wake word is defined as the specific phrase used to activate a voice assistant.

The class-action case accused the company of “unlawful and intentional interception and recording of individuals’ confidential communications without their consent and subsequent unauthorized disclosure of those communications to third parties.” According to the legal filing, the lawsuit further claimed that “information gleaned from these recordings was wrongly transmitted to third parties for targeted advertising and for other purposes.” The case focused on allegations that Google Assistant activated and recorded user communications even when users had not intentionally prompted the assistant with its designated wake word.

These privacy concerns reflect a broader sentiment among Americans, who have long suspected that their consumer devices inappropriately record their private conversations. These persistent suspicions have increasingly led to formal claims of legal wrongdoing against major technology companies. For context, in 2021, Apple agreed to pay $95 million to settle similar claims that its own voice assistant, Siri, had recorded conversations without receiving an intentional prompt from users.

Google, like other tech giants, has faced other privacy-related litigation in recent years. Last year, the company agreed to pay $1.4 billion to the state of Texas to settle two lawsuits. Those lawsuits claimed that Google had violated the state’s data privacy laws. This $1.4 billion settlement, along with the new $68 million agreement, underscores the ongoing legal challenges tech companies face over how their devices handle user data.

Why it matters

This settlement highlights the ongoing legal and privacy risks for tech giants regarding voice-activated AI, following a pattern of similar litigation against major industry players.