Google User Recording Settlement: What You Need to Know

Google has agreed to pay $68 million to settle a class action lawsuit that accused it of recording users’ private conversations without consent, according to documents filed Friday in a California federal court. The cause concerns Google’s voice assistant, which should activate only after the use of specific command phrases or by manually pressing a button. The plaintiffs instead claim that the system starts recordings even in the absence of activation, involving smartphones, home speakers, laptops, tablets, Chromecast devices and wireless earphones.

Some users have reported being reached by advertising messages based on conversations spoken without having activated the assistant. Google did not admit its responsibilities and explained that it had chosen the plea bargain to avoid the risks and costs of a long legal battle. The preliminary agreement must be approved by a federal judge Beth Labson Freeman. The amount that will be paid to the individual plaintiffs after legal costs is not yet known. In a similar case, Apple had reached a $95 million settlement on the operation of its voice assistant.

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