Zarish Baig of Squire Patton Boggs writes:
It was not long ago when we were first spooked to see advertisements in our browsers directed at things we were talking about “offline” moments earlier. Could our smart phones be recording our conversations? Is it legal? Is it even possible?
Well, short answer—your smartphone is always listening to you and analyzing your phrases (at least in short bursts) but it is not—as far as we know—using that information to direct advertising to your phone or computer browser. But is any level of surveillance of our conversations by Big-Tech really lawful? That is the question being determined in a huge piece of litigation here in California and the results could really change the (Consumer Privacy) World.
In In re Google, No. 19-cv-04286-BLF, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 80971 (N.D. Cal. May 6, 2020) the Court was asked to determine the sufficiency of allegations contending that Google Assistant’s surveillance of smartphone conversations violated-amongst other statutes-the Stored Communications Act (“SCA”), and The California Invasion of Privacy Act (“CIPA”).
Read more on National Law Review.