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By Jonathan Stempel<\/p>\n
Jan 26 (Reuters) – Google (GOOG, GOOGL) agreed to pay $68 million to settle a lawsuit claiming \u200bthat its voice-activated assistant spied inappropriately on \u200csmartphone users, violating their privacy.<\/p>\n
A preliminary class action settlement was \u200cfiled late Friday night in the San Jose, California federal court, and requires approval by U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman.<\/p>\n
Smartphone users accused Google, a unit \u2060of Alphabet, of \u200cillegally recording and disseminating private conversations after Google Assistant was triggered, in order \u200dto send them targeted advertising.<\/p>\n
Google Assistant is designed to react when people use “hot words” such as “Hey Google” or “Okay Google,” similar \u200bto Apple’s Siri.<\/p>\n
Users objected to receiving ads after \u200cGoogle Assistant misperceived what they said as hot words, known as “false accepts.”<\/p>\n
Apple (AAPL) reached a similar $95 million settlement with smartphone users in December 2024.<\/p>\n
Google denied wrongdoing, but settled to avoid the risk, cost and \u2060uncertainty of litigation, court papers \u200bshow. The Mountain View, California-based \u200bcompany declined to comment on Monday.<\/p>\n
The settlement covers people who bought Google devices or \u200dwere subjected \u2060to false accepts since May 18, 2016, court papers show.<\/p>\n
Lawyers for plaintiffs may seek up to \u2060one-third of the settlement fund, or about $22.7 million, for legal \u200cfees.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York, \u200cEditing by Franklin Paul)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n