You might be entitled to a share of Apple's $95 million Siri-spying settlement
In an interesting development, Apple today agreed to pay $95 million to settle a 5-year-old civil lawsuit that accused the tech giant of using its digital assistant Siri to spy on customers using the iPhone and other Apple devices. The suit alleged that for over a decade, Apple used Siri to record conversations on the iPhone and other Apple devices that were equipped with the digital assistant.
The lawsuit says that the recordings by Siri took place even when the assistant wasn't activated using the "Hey Siri" trigger words. The plaintiffs claimed in the lawsuit that Apple shared some of the conversations recorded by Siri with advertisers. This was done in an attempt to help the companies advertising sell their products to consumers more likely to be receptive to purchasing the products being sold by these firms.
By settling the lawsuit, Apple avoids having to acknowledge any wrongdoing. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White still has to sign off on the settlement and a February 14th court date (not the kind of Valentine's Day date that the judge was hoping for) has been proposed to review the agreement.
In iOS 18.2 Siri gained ChatGPT integration with Apple Intelligence. | Image credit-PhoneArena
If the settlement is approved, millions of consumers who owned an iPhone or other Apple devices from Sept. 17, 2014, through the end of last year are eligible to file a claim. It is estimated that each consumer could receive up to $20 for each Siri-equipped device covered by the settlement that he or she owns. Only 3% to 5% of eligible Apple customers are expected to file a claim and there will be a limit of five Siri-equipped devices that each consumer will be allowed to receive compensation for.
As typical in a Class-Action suit, it is the lawyers, not the defendants, who come out padding their wallets. The attorneys who filed the suit are asking for up to $29.6 million to cover their fees and other expenses. As for Apple, the company saved big bucks by deciding to settle. If the case had gone to trial and Apple had been found guilty of violating wiretapping and other privacy laws, it could have been on the hook for as much as $1.5 billion.
Apple introduced Siri with the unveiling of the iPhone 4s in October 2011. In 2019, Apple was accused of sending conversations recorded via Siri to contractors to grade Siri's performance without the consent of those being recorded. This was done in an effort to help Apple improve its digital assistant. Some of the recordings supposedly sent to contractors to be graded included the sound of couples having sex or engrossed in personal conversations.
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