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Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a proposed class action lawsuit that accused the iPhone maker of invading users’ privacy using its voice-activated Siri assistant.
The development was first reported by Reuters.
The settlement applies to U.S.-based individuals current or former owners or purchasers of a Siri-enabled device who had their confidential voice communications with the assistant “obtained by Apple and/or were shared with third-parties as a result of an
unintended Siri activation” between September 17, 2014, and December 31, 2024.
Eligible individuals can submit claims for up to five Siri devices – iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, MacBook, iMac, HomePod, iPod touch, or Apple TV – on which they claim to have experienced an accidental Siri activation during a conversation intended to be confidential or private. Class members who submit valid claims can receive $20 per device.
The lawsuit was brought against Apple following a 2019 report from The Guardian that disclosed that third-party contractors were listening in on private conversations of its users issuing voice commands to Siri as part of its efforts to improve the quality of its product.
An amended complaint filed in September 2021 alleged that the private conversations recorded by Apple because of accidental activations were also disclosed to third-party advertisers.
Cupertino has disputed the claims, arguing that “there are no facts, much less plausible facts, that tie Plaintiffs’ receipt of targeted ads to their speculation that Siri must have been listening to their conversations, and Apple must have used Siri to facilitate targeted ads by third parties.”
Following the revelations, Apple apologized for not “fully living up to our high ideals” and subsequently introduced an opt-in to help Siri improve by learning from the audio samples of their requests. It also said it will remove any recording that’s determined to be an inadvertent trigger of Siri.
It has since rolled out new settings across its software portfolio to allow users to disable the collection of analytics information for improving Siri and dictation, as well as delete all history. Apple has denied any wrongdoing in the settlement filing.
Google, which has also faced accusations with its voice assistant back in 2019, is battling a similar lawsuit in the U.S, District Court.
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