Google has agreed to a preliminary $68 million class action settlement tied to allegations that its voice-activated assistant inappropriately recorded and circulated private conversations after misfiring on users' speech. The settlement was filed late Friday in federal court in San Jose, California, and must be approved by U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman.
Plaintiffs claimed that Google, a unit of Alphabet, illegally recorded private conversations and then used those recordings to deliver targeted advertising after Google Assistant was inadvertently triggered. Google Assistant is designed to begin listening when users speak specified wake words, such as "Hey Google" or "Okay Google." The suit centers on instances when the system misperceived other speech as those wake words - commonly referred to as "false accepts" - and then allegedly led to ad delivery that users objected to.
The proposed settlement would cover people who purchased Google devices or who were subjected to false accepts beginning May 18, 2016, according to court papers. Google has denied any wrongdoing, but the company agreed to the payment to avoid the risk, cost and uncertainty of continued litigation, court documents say. The Mountain View, California-based company declined to comment on Monday.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs may seek up to one-third of the settlement fund for fees - roughly $22.7 million - as allowed under the terms described in court filings. The case follows a prior, similar settlement involving another smartphone maker: Apple reached a $95 million settlement with smartphone users in December 2024 over related allegations.
The filing in San Jose represents a resolution of claims tied to how a widely deployed digital assistant interprets spoken commands and how those interpretations can affect users' privacy and advertising experiences. The court's eventual decision on whether to approve the settlement will determine how the fund is distributed and whether any additional oversight or remedial measures are imposed as part of the resolution.
The legal papers and the settlement outline the parties' positions: plaintiffs allege improper recording and dissemination of private speech after misactivation, while Google denies the allegations and frames the settlement as a means to avoid protracted litigation.
Context note: The settlement filing, the potential legal fees, the covered time period beginning May 18, 2016, and the comparison to a December 2024 settlement for Apple are drawn from court filings referenced in the case documents.