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Google agrees to a massive Sh9.1 billion settlement over claims it secretly recorded users, confirming fears that our phones are indeed listening.

Your smartphone might have been listening even when you didn't say "Hey Google." In a landmark privacy case, Google has agreed to pay $68 million (approximately Sh9.1 billion) to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing it of recording private conversations without consent.
The lawsuit, filed in California, alleged that the "Google Assistant" feature on Android devices would frequently "false accept"—mistakenly thinking a user had spoken the wake word—and then record intimate audio. These recordings, plaintiffs claimed, were not just stored but shared with third parties for "analysis" to serve targeted ads.
We've all been there: you're chatting with a friend about buying a new sofa, and suddenly your phone lights up. Minutes later, you're seeing ads for furniture. For years, tech companies called this a conspiracy theory. This settlement suggests otherwise.
"Google denied wrongdoing, but settled to avoid the risk, cost and uncertainty of litigation," court papers reveal. The payout covers anyone who bought a Google device or was subjected to these "false accepts" since May 2016.
While the settlement is in the US, the implications are global. It forces a reckoning with the surveillance economy that underpins modern tech.
As AI becomes more integrated into our lives, this case serves as a stark warning: convenience often comes with a hidden price tag, and the currency is your privacy.
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