Google agrees to pay $68 million to settle privacy lawsuit

(NBC, KYMA) - Google has agreed to a multi-million-dollar settlement over allegations its voice assistant violated users' privacy.

The company will pay $68 million to settle a class-action lawsuit claiming its voice-activated assistant improperly recorded private conversations on smartphones.

The preliminary settlement was filled late Friday in federal court in San Jose and still requires a judge's approval.

The lawsuit accused Google of illegally recording and sharing conversations after Google Assistant was accidentally triggered, then using that information for targeted advertising.

Those unintended activations, known as "false accepts," occurred when the assistant mistakenly thought users said hot words like "Hey Google."

Google denied any wrongdoing but agreed to settle to avoid the cost and uncertainty of litigation.

The settlement applies to users who bought google devices or experienced false activations dating back to May of 2016.

Google declined to comment Monday.