Google Assistant Class Action Dismissal Motion Filed

Google has filed a motion to dismiss a proposed class action lawsuit that claims that Google Assistant records conversations without consent.

Google pre-installs their Google Assistant software on their devices, including their smart home speakers, Google Home and Google Home Mini, and its Pixel smartphones as well as any device that comes with Google’s Android Operating System.

The search company argues that the plaintiff’s claims are based on when the assistant experiences a “false accept,” which happens when the technology erroneously identifies a word that is considered a “hot word” and starts recording. Intentional hot words include “Hey Google” and other commands.

Google’s motion to dismiss states that “it is unreasonable to expect a voice activated device like the Assistant to never experience an unintentional activation, and it certainly does not amount to a violation of federal or state privacy laws or a breach of Google’s Terms of Service […] or Privacy Policy.”

Google also states that “no technology is perfect” and that, under the plaintiff’s theory, no voice activation technology could exist without a company being held liable for any errors that occur.

In their motion to dismiss the case, Google argues that it uses the recordings to improve their speech recognition technology and that this is expressly written under the Google privacy policy.

“Plaintiffs cannot, on the one hand, complain that the Assistant does not function perfectly, and, on the other hand, complain about Google’s efforts to improve it,” Google states.

The Google Assistant class action lawsuit was filed in July 2019 by Asif Kumandan and Melissa Spurr who claim that the Google voice assistant recorded their private and confidential conversations, starting in May 2016.

The plaintiffs complain that the Google Assistant should only be recording conversations after a hot word is spoken, such as “Okay, Google” or “Hey, Google.” They say that it is in violation of California law to record conversations without consent of all parties in the conversation.

The Google class action states that users of Google Assistant enabled devices have not given the company consent to record their conversation when a hot word has not been uttered.

The plaintiffs point to a Belgian news report which stated that Google was using their Assistant enabled devices to record individuals, including minors, without their consent. According to the report, the conversations were recorded even when a hot word had not been spoken.

In their class action lawsuit against Google, the plaintiffs state that they would not have purchased a Google Assistant-enabled device if they knew that their private conversations would be recorded without their consent.

The plaintiffs claim in their class action lawsuit that there are 2.3 billion Google Assistant-enabled devices in the world which includes 51 million Google Home voice activated speakers and more than 2 billion smartphones that run the Google Android Operating System.

Potential Class Members include: “All individuals who were recorded by a Google Assistant Enabled Device without their consent from at least as early as May 18, 2016 to the present (the ‘Class Period’) and Within the Class is a Subclass of those who are or were minor children and were recorded by a Google Assistant Enabled Device during the Class Period.”

Were your conversations recorded by Google Assistant? Leave a message in the comments section below.

The plaintiffs are represented by Mark N. Todzo and Eric S. Somers of Lexington Law Group, Vincent Briganti, Christian Levis and Ian Sloss of Lowey Dannenberg PC and Joseph P. Guglielmo and Erin Green Comite of Scott & Scott Attorneys at Law LLP.

The Google Assistant Class Action Lawsuit is Asif Kumandan, et al. v. Google LLC, Case No. 5:19-cv-04286, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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