TECHNOLOGY

Tech Giant Google Agrees To Pay Millions After Spying on Private Talks Through Devices

Anonymous

28 Jan 2026 — 1 min read

Google has agreed to pay $68 million to end a big group lawsuit. The lawsuit said that Google's voice assistant broke the law by recording users without permission and sharing their private talks with advertisers.

This early agreement was filed on January 23 in a federal court in San Jose, California. It still needs to be approved by U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman.

The agreement comes from a lawsuit started by some owners of Google devices. They said their talks were recorded without them knowing. Google claimed its voice assistant only listened to speech when people said a wake-up phrase like "Hey Google." But the owners said the devices recorded them even without those words.

Some people in the lawsuit said the Google devices recorded private talks about money problems, personal choices, and jobs.

If the judge approves the agreement, Google will put $68 million into a fund. This fund will pay out all the claims from consumers, plus lawyer fees and other costs that the court allows.

Google, which is owned by Alphabet, did not reply right away to a request for comment from CBS News.

People can file claims for up to three Google devices. But the amount each person gets will depend on how many claims are filed in total, based on the agreement.

This deal is like a similar group lawsuit against Apple. That one said Apple's Siri voice assistant listened in on private or secret talks. Apple device owners are getting payments this month from the $95 million agreement, with amounts from about $8 to $40 per person.

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