Apple agreed a $95 million settlement over a 2019 class action lawsuit alleging privacy breaches through the iPhone maker’s voice-activated virtual assistant Siri, Reuters reported.
The lawsuit, launched five years ago, accused the company of recording users’ private conversations including sensitive medical information after Siri was unintentionally activated on their mobile devices.
The plaintiffs, estimated to be in the tens of millions, claimed this data was shared with third parties after advertisements for products and services mentioned in their personal conversations began appearing on their devices.
The lawsuit alleged that Apple committed the privacy violations from September 17, 2014, after introducing its ‘Hey Siri’ feature that uses pre-determined verbal commands to activate the voice assistant. The class period terminated on 31 December 2024.
While reviewing the claims in 2019, Apple suspended its Siri grading system operation which uses human reviewers to determine whether Siri was intentionally activated, and pledged to resume it with an opt-out option.
Filing the settlement in its domestic federal California court earlier this week, Apple ultimately denied the accusations. It is however due to pay up to $20 per Siri-enabled device, including iPhones and Apple Watches.
Reuters pointed out that the $95 million payout racks up to about nine hours of profit for Apple, which had a net income of close to $94 billion in its last fiscal year.
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