Google has agreed to pay 68 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that its voice assistant unlawfully recorded users' private conversations without consent, according to Reuters.
The lawsuit accused the tech giant of intentionally intercepting and recording confidential communications and sharing data derived from those recordings with third parties, including for targeted advertising. Google denied any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
At the center of the case were so-called false accepts, instances in which Google Assistant allegedly activated and recorded audio without being prompted by a wake word. Plaintiffs argued that information captured during these incidents was improperly transmitted to third parties.
