Before Gemini, Google Assistant was a “virtual assistant” introduced by Google that was offered to help users of Google devices with the ability to perform a number of simple tasks.
However, in 2024, Google was sued because Google Assistant was said to listen to users’ conversations without their permission or knowledge. Technically, devices with Google Assistant support would previously listen to users’ conversations for the “Hey Google” command before it was activated.
However, several issues such as “false accepts” or false confirmations that showed Google Assistant was activated even though the user did not say Hey Google to activate it made many users feel that all their conversations were being listened to and recorded by their devices.
Google reportedly settled this lawsuit for $68 million recently to avoid further delay, although the party is still adamant in saying that Google Assistant does not record user conversations without permission.
This is also not a case unique to Google. In 2021, Apple also paid $95 million in a similar lawsuit for their own virtual assistant, Siri.
