Google pays $68 million to settle claims its voice assistant spied on users
Google agreed to pay $68 million to resolve allegations that its voice assistant illegally spied on users to serve ads, among other things. Reuters reports.
Google did not admit wrongdoing in settling the class-action lawsuit. blamed the company “Illegal and intentional interception and recording of individuals’ confidential communications without their consent and subsequent disclosure of those communications to third parties without their consent.” The lawsuit also alleged that “information collected from these records was inadvertently transmitted to third parties for targeted advertising and other purposes.”
The case focused on:is considered wrong“, in which Google Assistant allegedly activates and records a user’s communications even if they don’t intentionally request it with a wake word. TechCrunch has reached out to Google for comment.
Americans have long suspected that their devices were spying on them inappropriately. These suspicions increasingly led to allegations of legal irregularities. Apple in 2021 Agreed to pay 95 million dollars To resolve claims that voice assistant Siri records users’ conversations without any request.
Like other tech giants, Google has faced other privacy-related lawsuits in recent years. Last year, the company agreed to pay $1.4 billion to the state of Texas to settle two lawsuits filed against it. had violated data privacy laws.
