Google Settles $68 Million Lawsuit Claiming It Recorded Private Conversations (bbc.com) 22
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Google has agreed to pay $68 million to settle a lawsuit claiming it secretly listened to people's private conversations through their phones. [...] the lawsuit claimed Google Assistant would sometimes turn on by mistake -- the phone thinking someone had said its activation phrase when they had not -- and recorded conversations intended to be private. They alleged the recordings were then sent to advertisers for the purpose of creating targeted advertising. The proposed settlement was filed on Friday in a California federal court, and requires approval by US District Judge Beth Labson Freeman.
The claim has been brought as a class action lawsuit rather than an individual case -- meaning if it is approved, the money will be paid out across many different claimants. Those eligible for a payout will have owned Google devices dating back to May 2016. But lawyers for the plaintiffs may ask for up to one-third of the settlement -- amounting to about $22 million in legal fees. The tech firm also denied any wrongdoing, as well as claims that it "recorded, disclosed to third parties, or failed to delete, conversations recorded as the result of a Siri activation" without consent.
The claim has been brought as a class action lawsuit rather than an individual case -- meaning if it is approved, the money will be paid out across many different claimants. Those eligible for a payout will have owned Google devices dating back to May 2016. But lawyers for the plaintiffs may ask for up to one-third of the settlement -- amounting to about $22 million in legal fees. The tech firm also denied any wrongdoing, as well as claims that it "recorded, disclosed to third parties, or failed to delete, conversations recorded as the result of a Siri activation" without consent.
They do , you don't (Score:1)
Always the same , lawyers get paid the lion share and the crumbs are left to the plaintiffs. Never participate in a class action lawsuit. Do it yourself.
Re: (Score:3)
The problem with doing it yourself is the cost. Class actions are because stealing from a million is less expensive than stealing from one.
If I steal $1,000,000 from you, you'd probably use the courts to get back at me. But if I steal $10 from 100,000 people, it's not worth people's time, effort and money to sue. I make the same money and get away scot-free
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Always the same , lawyers get paid the lion share and the crumbs are left to the plaintiffs. Never participate in a class action lawsuit. Do it yourself.
Megacorps have a legal team on standby reserved just for those Us vs. You cases, with that entire departmental budget filed under “For Fucks and Funsies”, funded through 2087.
Good luck.
68 million out of 300 billion revenue in 2025 (Score:2)
Google had over 300 billion USD in revenue in 2025.
A 68 million dollar fine is tiny.
That is like a person making $50,000 USD per year getting fined $12.
Great news for lawyers (Score:2)
If I was caught (Score:2)
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Google Assistant Randomly Turns On and Listens (Score:1)
Yeah I've had a Google Pixel 6 device and before I Google Nexus 6 device and anytime I had the Google Assistant I would notice it that it would randomly turn on even in a quiet room because I would see the screen to that whole circle thing as it's listening to you and recording everything that's being said.
I ended up turning off the assistant feature because it kept doing it and every so often it would even turn itself on even when the assistant was completely turned off and disabled in every single setting
Re: (Score:2)
One of many reasons why I prefer the Alexa ecosystem. Besides that it seems to generally work better, Amazon is the only one with access and they never sell whatever data they accumulate.
Anyway... (Score:1)
Snowden, etc.
I miss CmdrTaco.
Lawyers get 67 Million (Score:2)
Yeah, right (Score:2)
I hardly ever say the word "google," but I still always get ads about whatever I talk about. This rhetoric of blaming incidental activations (and then selling whatever you say to third parties under such incidental activations) is pretty dumb. Just say it like it is: it turns on whenever to listen to what you say and uses that for targeted advertising. The only thing I actually don't like is google saying they aren't listening on purpose.
Siri? (Score:1)