Google is preparing to pay $68 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging that it secretly recorded private conversations on Android users’ phones.
The lawsuit centers on Google Assistant, a virtual assistant available on many Android devices.
Plaintiffs allege the assistant recorded private conversations after being inadvertently activated and that the recordings were shared with advertisers to support targeted advertising.
Google Assistant is designed to remain in standby mode until it detects an activation phrase such as “Hey Google.”
Once activated, the device records audio and sends it to Google servers for processing.
Google states that no audio is sent while the assistant remains in standby mode.
The lawsuit claims the assistant sometimes activates unintentionally when it mistakenly interprets background speech as its trigger phrase, resulting in recordings of conversations intended to be private.
The proposed settlement was filed Friday in a California federal court and requires approval from US District Judge Beth Labson Freeman, reports Reuters.
In a filing seeking to resolve the case, Google denies wrongdoing and says it agrees to the settlement to avoid continued litigation.
The case is brought as a class action, meaning payments would be distributed among eligible claimants who owned Google devices dating back to May 2016.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys may seek up to one-third of the settlement, or roughly $22 million, in legal fees.
The agreement follows a similar case earlier this year in which Apple agreed to pay $95 million to settle allegations related to its Siri voice assistant, while also denying wrongdoing.
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