Over the past week, Google has settled two class action lawsuits over Android privacy, one regarding data usage and the other around Assistant, despite the company denying any wrongdoing.
Reuters reports that Google has agreed to pay $135 million to settle a class action lawsuit where Google was accused “of programming its Android operating system to collect [user’s] cellular data without permission.”
The lawsuit covered Android devices dating back to November 2017 and alleged that Google “needlessly collected cellular data” (in other words, used mobile data) even if users had closed Google apps, locked the phone, and disabled location sharing.
As a part of the settlement, Google cannot transfer data without consent from the user during device setup, and Android will need to add a setting to more easily toggle off this data transfer.
Earlier this week, Google settled a different lawsuit around Android, this time around Assistant privacy. This lawsuit alleged that Google “spied inappropriately” on users whenever Assistant would mis-hear the “Hey Google” wake phrase on devices dating back to May 2016.
Both in this case and the other, Google denied any wrongdoing, but settled the Assistant case for $68 million. Apple faced a similar lawsuit in 2024, Reuters points out, where it paid out $95 million.
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