Google agrees to pay $68 million to settle voice recording lawsuit
Google has agreed to pay $68 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging its voice-activated assistant illegally recorded and shared the plaintiffs’ private conversations with third parties without their consent.
A preliminary settlement agreement was filed Friday in a Northern California federal court and still requires a judge’s approval.
Plaintiffs had alleged that when Google Assistant was triggered, the tech giant began recording their words and then disclosed them to third parties in order to sell targeted advertising.
Google Assistant engages when users say “Hey Google.” The plaintiffs alleged that they received targeted ads after Google Assistant misheard them and improperly triggered Assistant.
The settlement funds will be distributed to people who bought Google devices since May 2016.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment but reportedly agreed to settle without an admission of wrongdoing.
Suzanne Smalley
is a reporter covering digital privacy, surveillance technologies and cybersecurity policy for The Record. She was previously a cybersecurity reporter at CyberScoop. Earlier in her career Suzanne covered the Boston Police Department for the Boston Globe and two presidential campaign cycles for Newsweek. She lives in Washington with her husband and three children.