Google to Pay $68 Million to Settle Voice Assistant Privacy Lawsuit
Google has agreed to pay USD 68 million to settle allegations that its voice assistant secretly recorded conversations and monitored users without their knowledge. According to a report by Reuters, the technology giant consented to the payment as part of a settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed in the United States, although Google did not admit to any wrongdoing.
The lawsuit alleged that Google Assistant recorded private conversations without user consent and shared the collected data with third parties, including for the purpose of serving targeted advertisements.
A central issue in the case was the so-called “false accept” problem, in which the assistant was allegedly activated and began recording even when the designated wake word was not spoken.
Concerns over unwarranted surveillance through user devices have existed in the United States for many years. In a similar case in 2021, Apple agreed to pay USD 95 million to settle a lawsuit involving its voice assistant Siri over comparable allegations.
In recent years, Google has faced multiple lawsuits related to data privacy violations. Last year, the company paid USD 1.4 billion to resolve two such cases with the US state of Texas.
DBTech/BMT/OR
