Internet search engine Google has settled a class action lawsuit for $68 million after users claimed that their privacy was breached.
According to The Hill, a court document was filed on Friday (Jan. 23) in Northern California involving the Google Assistant tool. The feature is meant to start recording when phrases like "Hey, Google," are used, or when a button is manually pressed.
The lawsuit claims that private conversations were recorded—even without vocal or physical triggers—by Google devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
Consumers alleged that they noticed that their conversations were intruded upon after they received ads related to things they said aloud. Although Google did not admit fault, the tech giant settled the lawsuit, saying it wanted to avoid "uncertainty, risk, expense, inconvenience and distraction."
U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman of San Jose, California, has to authorize the preliminary request in federal court.
Last year, Google competitor Apple agreed to a similar payout of $95 million after a class action lawsuit alleged that employees spied on users.
To qualify for payment from the settlement, users had to own a Siri-utilizing Apple device between September 17, 2014, and December 31, 2024. Within that time, users’ "confidential communications" must have been "obtained by Apple and/or were shared with third parties as a result of an unintended Siri activation."
Apple denied wrongdoing, telling Nexstar that Siri was designed "to protect user privacy from the beginning." This week, it was announced that the payments are being disbursed.