Comment by amatecha
6 days ago
Google literally just settled for $68m about this very issue https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/26/google-pr...
> Google agreed to pay $68m to settle a lawsuit claiming that its voice-activated assistant spied inappropriately on smartphone users, violating their privacy.
Apple as well https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/03/apple-sir...
“Google denied wrongdoing but settled to avoid the risk, cost and uncertainty of litigation, court papers show.”
I keep seeing folks float this as some admission of wrongdoing but it is not.
The payout was not pennies and this case had been around since 2019, surviving multiple dismissal attempts.
While not an "admission of wrongdoing," it points to some non-zero merit in the plaintiff's case.
Google makes over $1bn/day. $68mm is literally an hour's worth of revenue to them - so yes pennies.
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No corporate body ever admits wrongdoing and that's part of the problem. Even when a company loses its appeals, it's virtually unheard of for them to apologize, usually you just get a mealy mouthed 'we respect the court's decision although it did not go the way we hoped.' Accordingly, I don't give denials of wrongdoing any weight at all. I don't assume random accusations are true, but even when they are corporations and their officers/spokespersons are incentivized to lie.
>I keep seeing folks float this as some admission of wrongdoing but it is not.
It absolutely is.
If they knew without a doubt their equipment (that they produce) doesn't eavesdrop, then why would they be concerned about "risk [...] and uncertainty of litigation"?
It is not. The belief that it does is just a comforting delusion people believe to avoid reality. Large companies often forgo fighting cases that will result in a Pyrrhic victory.
Also people already believe google (and every other company) eavesdrops on them, going to trail and winning the case people would not change that.
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> I keep seeing folks float this as some admission of wrongdoing but it is not.
The money is the admission of guilt in modern parlance.
The next sentence under the headline is "Tech company denied illegally recording and circulating private conversations to send phone users targeted ads".
That's a worthless indicator of objective innocence.
It's a private, civil case that settled. To not deny wrongdoing (even if guilty) would be insanely rare.
Obviously. The point is that settling a lawsuit in this way is also a worthless indicator of wrongdoing.
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That one is about incorrect activations, not about spying on anyone
Those lawsuits are not about continuous background spying at all