Google Pays $68 Million to Resolve Google Assistant Privacy Case

Kenya, January 26, 2026 - Alphabet’s Google has reached a proposed $68 million settlement in a class-action privacy lawsuit alleging its Google Assistant technology recorded people without their consent, sometimes when users had not deliberately activated the service.

The settlement motion was filed late Friday in federal court in San Jose, California, and still requires approval from U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman. If approved, it would end years of litigation that highlighted growing consumer concerns over privacy and smart voice technologies.

The lawsuit dates back to 2019, when users began accusing Google of improperly capturing and storing private conversations through devices running Google Assistant. The software is supposed to listen only after users speak trigger phrases like “Hey Google” or “Okay Google,” but plaintiffs argued that the assistant sometimes initiated recordings after mishearing similar sounds; a phenomenon often described as “false acceptance.”

Those false acceptances, the suit claimed, generated audio clips that were retained by Google and used for internal purposes, including training systems that improve recognition technologies. In some reported instances, critics said, this led to targeted advertisements that seemed eerily connected to private conversations.

Although Google has consistently denied any wrongdoing, company lawyers made the strategic decision to settle rather than endure the uncertainty and high costs of continued litigation. Court filings show the tech giant will not admit liability as part of the deal, but plaintiffs’ attorneys argued the settlement would provide quicker relief to those affected while avoiding the risk of drawn-out appeals.