Google will pay $68 million to settle allegations it secretly recorded conversations

Google has agreed to pay $68 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that its voice assistant secretly recorded smart device users in violation of their privacy.

The preliminary ruling was filed Friday in San Jose, California, federal court, but still needs to be approved by US District Judge Beth Labson Freeman.

The tech giant has been accused of illegally recording and distributing private conversations after its Google Assistant tool was enabled to send targeted advertising.

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Google Assistant, which should only record when the user says phrases like “Hey Google,” or “Okay Google” or when someone presses a button on the device, is improperly recording personal conversations when these “hot words” are used, without the knowledge of users of Google’s smartphones, home speakers, laptops, tablets, Chromecast media players and wireless earphones, according to the law.

Users said they were targeted with ads based on things they mentioned while not trying to activate their smart devices using the hot word.

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The tech giant has been accused of illegally recording and distributing private conversations after its Google Assistant tool was enabled to send targeted advertising. (GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)

Google did not admit any wrongdoing, but said it decided to fix it to avoid the “uncertainty, risk, cost, disruption and inconvenience” of a lengthy lawsuit, according to court documents.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs may seek one-third of the settlement fund, or about $22.7 million, for legal fees.

Apple reached a similar agreement with smartphone users in December 2024 for its virtual assistant, Siri, for $95 million.

Google did not admit any wrongdoing, but said it decided to fix it to avoid the “uncertainty, risk, cost, disruption and inconvenience” of a lengthy trial. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images / Getty Images)

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Google has also settled other privacy complaints in the past, including one reached last spring, when it agreed to pay $1.4 billion in Texas to settle a lawsuit alleging the company collected user data without consent.

It was also ordered in September to pay $425.7 million for invading user privacy by collecting data from millions of people who turned off the tracking feature in their Google accounts.

In 2024, the company agreed to destroy billions of data records of users’ private browsing activities to settle a lawsuit accused of tracking people they believed were browsing privately, including in “Incognito” mode.

Reuters contributed to this report.