Google pays $68 million to settle allegations that its voice assistant spied on users

Google has agreed to pay $68 million to settle allegations that its voice assistant illegally spied on users to serve ads, among other things, Reuters reported.

Google did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement of the class action lawsuit, which accused the company of “unlawfully and intentionally intercepting and recording individuals’ confidential communications without their consent and subsequent unauthorized disclosure of those communications to third parties.” The lawsuit also alleged that “information derived from these recordings was wrongfully transferred to third parties for targeted advertising and other purposes.”

The case centered on “false opt-in,” where Google Assistant allegedly activated and recorded a user’s communications even if they did not intentionally prompt them to do so with a wake word. TechCrunch has reached out to Google for comment.

Americans have long suspected that their devices are inappropriately spying on them. Increasingly, these doubts have led to allegations of legal wrongdoing. In 2021, Apple agreed to pay $95 million to settle allegations that its voice assistant, Siri, recorded their conversations without users asking.

Google, like other tech giants, has faced other privacy lawsuits in recent years. Last year, the company agreed to pay $1.4 billion to the state of Texas to settle two lawsuits that claimed it violated the state’s data privacy laws.