Jan 26 (Reuters) - Google agreed to pay $68 million to

settle a lawsuit claiming that its voice-activated assistant

spied inappropriately on smartphone users, violating ‌their

privacy.

A preliminary class action settlement was filed late Friday

night ​in the San Jose, California federal ‍court, and requires

approval by U.S. ⁠District Judge ⁠Beth Labson Freeman.

Smartphone users accused Google, a unit of ‌Alphabet,

of illegally recording and ​disseminating private conversations

after Google Assistant was triggered, in order to send ⁠them

targeted advertising.

Google Assistant ‍is ​designed to react when people use "hot

words" such as "Hey Google" or "Okay Google," similar to ‍Apple's

Siri.

Users objected to receiving ads after Google Assistant

misperceived what they said as hot words, known as "false

accepts."

Apple ( AAPL ) reached a similar $95 million settlement with

smartphone users in December ​2024.

Google ‍denied wrongdoing, but settled to avoid the risk,

cost and uncertainty of litigation, ​court papers show. The

Mountain View, California-based company declined to comment on

Monday.

The settlement covers people who bought Google devices or

were subjected to false accepts since May 18, 2016, court papers

show.

Lawyers for ​plaintiffs may seek up to one-third of the

settlement fund, or about $22.7 million, for legal fees.