US Judge Affirms Voice Assistant Privacy Class Action Case Against Google: Reuters

  • Federal judge Beth Labson Freeman agreed to prosecute Alphabet Inc's GOOG GOOGL Google for allegedly recording private conversations of people who accidentally triggered its voice-activated Voice Assistant on their smartphones, Reuters reports.
  • The plaintiffs for the proposed class-action lawsuit challenged Google's right to use their conversations for targeted advertising when Google Assistant misperceived what they said as hot words, known as "false accept."
  • Google failed to sufficiently explain to users that it will use recordings made in the absence of manual activation or a hot word utterance, Freeman acknowledged.
  • Google defended, saying plaintiffs failed to show that they were harmed or broke any contractual guarantees. Google never promised that the Assistant would activate when plaintiffs intend it to, the company added.
  • The proposed lawsuit sought unspecified damages.
  • Price action: GOOG shares traded higher by 1.81% at $2,573.2 on the last check Friday.
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