Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit alleging that Siri, the company’s virtual assistant, secretly recorded users’ chats. As part of the proposed settlement, Apple will pay out at least $20 to owners of devices that support Siri.
Apple claimed any wrongdoing while accepting the compensation. Through the settlement, the business is able to avoid the potential for high legal costs as well as the uncertainty of a trial. Apple would have been required to pay $1.5 billion in damages if the case had gone to trial and the tech giant had lost.
What accusations did the plaintiffs make?
An Apple whistleblower claimed in a 2019 article in The Guardian that contractors the company employed to verify Siri’s quality assurance overheard private customer conversations. According to reports, Siri accidentally activated these recordings, which included users talking about confidential topics including critical medical information.Some of the videos purportedly showed couples having sex or other private moments. Up to 1,000 recordings were reportedly listened to by contractors every day.
The whistleblower further asserted that the private user conversations were probably accidentally captured since common sounds, such as the “sound of a zip,” might be mistaken for the wake word by Siri and cause it to activate.
Two plaintiffs filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple after these disclosures, alleging that the tech giant had recorded and eavesdropped on private conversations without users ever uttering the wake word “Hey, Siri.”
Apple is reportedly developing a new AI-powered Siri to compete with ChatGPT and Gemini Live.
Additionally, Apple was charged in the case with disclosing these recordings to marketers, who then utilized the talks to identify keywords and target users with advertisements. One complainant claimed that after bringing up Olive Garden and Air Jordan footwear in private chats, they were served advertisements for the products. Another said that after speaking with a doctor confidentially, they were targeted with advertisements for a certain medical procedure .According to reports, one recording included a kid without an Apple account, which raises questions around permission because the minor could not have given their approval even if they so desired.
What was Apple’s reaction?
Only a “small portion” of Siri requests were assessed for quality assurance, according to a 2018 letter from Apple to the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and those requests were not connected to users’ Apple IDs.
Apple said, “iPhone doesn’t listen to consumers except to recognize the clear, unambiguous audio trigger ‘Hey, Siri.'” The company denied that it records user audio without permission. “Apple does not grant access to Siri utterances to outside app developers. The letter stated, “[…] A visual indicator is presented to the user when Siri is listening to their request.”
It further stated that “all reviewers are required to comply with Apple’s stringent confidentiality requirements, and Siri responses are analyzed in secure facilities.”
However, following The Guardian’s 2019 expose on how third-party contractors obtained user recordings that contained their personal information, the corporation formally apologized.
According to Apple’s statement, “We acknowledge that we haven’t been fully fulfilling our high ideals, and for that we sincerely apologize.”
Additionally, it revealed a number of changes to Siri’s privacy policy, including allowing users to opt out of data collection for analytics, deleting audio recordings of Siri interactions that were discovered to have been captured by accidentally activating Siri, utilizing computer-generated transcripts to help Siri improve, and limiting access to audio samples of Siri interactions to Apple employees only.
Who can receive Apple’s payout?
In the United States, a few plaintiffs who are prepared to appear in court on behalf of a larger group of people file class-action lawsuits. The defendant must compensate all claimants if the plaintiffs prevail in court.The claimant must reside in the US in order to be eligible for Apple’s $20 compensation. Between 2014 and 2019, they have to have owned an Apple device with Siri. According to reports, they would be required to testify that they had private chats captured by Siri and that they had accidentally activated the voice assistant.
According to court documents, a website will be established within 45 days for claimants to submit their claims. The Apple-Siri eavesdropping class-action lawsuit has a May 15, 2025, deadline for filing claims.
Not all of the $95 million settlement amount will be distributed to the claimants. In addition to $1.1 million, attorneys who defended the case could request less than $30 million in legal fees.
The implications of the recent antitrust case for Apple and iPhone users
To put things in perspective, Apple made $93.74 billion in its most recent fiscal year. Judge Jeffrey White of the US District Court for the Northern District of California still needs to approve the deal. Apple has proposed February 14, 2025, as the court’s decision date.
How to disable Siri on a Mac, iPhone, and iPad
Apple users will undoubtedly become concerned about their privacy after learning about the settlement. Here are few methods for turning off Siri on Apple products.
Go to Settings > Siri > Talk to Siri > Off if you’re using an iPhone or iPad. Turn off Press Side Button for Siri or Press Home for Siri to stop the voice assistant from ever activating. On a Mac, select System Settings > Siri & Spotlight by clicking on the Apple logo in the upper-left corner of the screen. After that, turn off Ask Siri.
