Google agrees to pay $68M to settle lawsuit over alleged secret listening to users

By Dilara Karatas and Emir Yildirim

ANKARA / ISTANBUL (AA) — Google has agreed to pay $68 million to settle a lawsuit filed in a California federal court, following allegations that its voice assistant technology, Google Assistant, secretly listened to private conversations.

The lawsuit, filed on Jan. 23, alleges that Google Assistant was activated without user consent and recorded private conversations, which were then sent to Google’s servers.

According to the complaint, Android devices running Google Assistant are designed to activate only after detecting trigger phrases such as “Hey Google” or “Okay Google,” but the assistant was sometimes activated unintentionally.

While Google processes voice commands by transmitting recordings to its servers, the lawsuit claims that unintentional activations resulted in the collection and transmission of private conversations without users’ knowledge.

The assistant feature is available on a wide range of devices, such as Google phones, smart speakers, laptops, tablets, and wireless headphones.

Google said it agreed to pay $68 million to avoid litigation.

The settlement is pending approval by US District Judge Beth Labson Freeman.

Similarly, on Jan. 3, Apple agreed to pay $95 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that its voice assistant Siri listened in on private conversations and violated user privacy.