Google has agreed to pay a whopping $68 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that its voice-activated assistant was spying on smartphone users without their consent. The tech giant, which is part of the Alphabet conglomerate, faces claims that it illegally recorded and disseminated private conversations after Google Assistant misinterpreted users' conversations as "hot words" like "Hey Google" or "OK Google".
The issue at hand revolves around "false accepts", where Google Assistant incorrectly identifies a user's voice command as one of its trigger phrases. This leads to the assistant sending targeted ads to the user, who had not explicitly given permission for their personal conversations to be shared.
Despite denying any wrongdoing, Google has decided to settle the lawsuit rather than face the uncertainty and cost of litigation. The settlement applies to individuals who purchased Google devices or were affected by false accepts since May 18th, 2016. A significant chunk of the $68 million will go towards covering lawyers' fees, with the plaintiffs potentially taking home up to one-third of the fund.
This is not the first time Google has faced similar allegations; Apple reached a comparable settlement last year, agreeing to pay out $95 million to smartphone users who claimed they were targeted by false accepts.
The issue at hand revolves around "false accepts", where Google Assistant incorrectly identifies a user's voice command as one of its trigger phrases. This leads to the assistant sending targeted ads to the user, who had not explicitly given permission for their personal conversations to be shared.
Despite denying any wrongdoing, Google has decided to settle the lawsuit rather than face the uncertainty and cost of litigation. The settlement applies to individuals who purchased Google devices or were affected by false accepts since May 18th, 2016. A significant chunk of the $68 million will go towards covering lawyers' fees, with the plaintiffs potentially taking home up to one-third of the fund.
This is not the first time Google has faced similar allegations; Apple reached a comparable settlement last year, agreeing to pay out $95 million to smartphone users who claimed they were targeted by false accepts.
i'm kinda surprised google settled without denying anything... seems like a pretty big scandal? i mean, who wants their private convo being shared with ads lol did anyone else have this issue with their google assistant? it's crazy how misinterpreting some words can lead to sharing our personal info. wonder what other companies got hit with similar lawsuits 
i mean, who hasn't had an awkward conversation with their phone assistant and thought it was just a weird malfunction... but apparently it's been happening to people for years and they're just now talking about it.
The fact that it misinterpreted "hot words" like "Hey Google" or "OK Google" is just red flag after red flag 
. And now they're settling the lawsuit instead of fighting it out in court, which just goes to show how serious these allegations are 
. I'm glad some people are getting some compensation for their troubles, but this whole thing just makes me wanna rethink my loyalty to Google 
. I mean, how can you not expect your AI assistant to misinterpret a user's voice command? But still, $68 million is a pretty penny 
. It just decided to settle and save face. I guess when you're as big as Alphabet, you can afford to shell out the cash 
. But it's still not exactly great for the users who got taken advantage of 
. Maybe this will make Google more cautious in the future? Only time will tell 
.
. I'm glad there are people fighting for us to have control over our own info 
!
. It feels like every few months, there's another scandal or lawsuit about these companies spying on us without our consent. Apple's settlement was just last year, and now Google's getting away with it too. I guess you could say that the game of "tech company roulette" is never-ending 
.
like what if they had just admitted that their AI was flawed from the start? Like wouldn't that have saved them a ton of drama and money in the long run? 
now. And on the bright side, I guess it's a good reminder for all of us to double-check our Google Assistant settings every now and then 
I mean, think about it - just because you say something like "Hey Google" or "OK Google" when you're talking to a friend or family member, doesn't mean Google is supposed to start recording and sharing that conversation with advertisers. It's just not right 
. And the fact that they denied any wrongdoing but still settled the lawsuit makes it even more frustrating 
? that's like, a lot of money 
I don't know if I'd say Google is a bad company or anything, but this whole thing does seem pretty shady 
. And yeah, $68 million sounds like a lot of cash, but at least some people are gonna come out ahead 
. It's as if we're just tiny pawns in a game where our private lives are the ultimate prize. I mean, who needs consent when your every thought is being logged, analyzed, and sold to the highest bidder? It's a slippery slope, my friends... once we surrender our right to anonymity, what's left of our autonomy? The irony is that these companies claim they're just trying to provide a service, but in reality, they're curating an endless stream of data on us, to be used against us. Can we ever truly trust the benevolence of the digital age?
Google's got some 'splainin' to do