Apple to pay $95 million to resolve Siri eavesdropping case

Apple has agreed to pay $95m (£77m) to settle a court case accusing some of its devices of listening to people's voices without permission.

The tech giant has been accused of eavesdropping on customers through its virtual assistant Siri.

The claimant also alleged that the recordings were shared with advertisers.

Apple denies selling Siri data and says it has reached a settlement to avoid further litigation.

“Siri data has never been used to build marketing materials and has never been sold to anyone for any purpose,” an Apple spokesperson told BBC News, adding that the data collected by the tool is only used to improve it.

They added: “Apple settled this case to avoid additional litigation so that we could move beyond concerns about third-party ratings that had been resolved in 2019.”

They said its digital assistant technology was “designed to protect user privacy from the beginning” and that it continually seeks to enhance its privacy.

exist preliminary settlement, The tech company denies any wrongdoing and claims it “recorded, disclosed to third parties or failed to delete conversations recorded as a result of Siri activation” without consent.

Apple's lawyers also said they would confirm “the permanent deletion of personal Siri recordings collected by Apple before October 2019.”

But claimants say the tech company recorded people who inadvertently activated the virtual assistant – without using the phrase “Hey, Siri” to wake it up.

Advertisers who receive the recordings can look for keywords in them to better target their ads, they said.

Lead plaintiff Fumiko Lopez claims that both she and her daughter were recorded without their consent.

They claim they received targeted ads after talking Products include Air Jordans.

Apple has proposed that the Northern California court rule on February 14.

A class action lawsuit is filed in court by a small number of people on behalf of a larger group.

If they are successful, the money won will be paid to all claimants.

According to court documents, each claimant (who must live in the United States) could receive up to $20 in compensation for each Siri-enabled device they owned between 2014 and 2019.

In this case, the attorney could charge 30 percent plus other fees, for a total of less than $30 million.

By settling, Apple not only denies wrongdoing but also avoids the risk of court action, which could mean larger damages.

California Corporation Achieved revenue of US$94.9 billion During the three months ending September 28, 2024.

Apple has been involved in a number of class-action lawsuits in recent years.

In January 2024, it will begin with $500 million lawsuit The company claims it intentionally slows down iPhones in the United States.

In March, both parties agreed Paid $490 million Class action lawsuit led by Norfolk County Council, UK.

In November, consumer group Which? launched a class-action lawsuit against Apple, accusing it of defrauding customers with its products iCloud services.

The law firm is suing Google in a similar class-action lawsuit, accusing it of listening to customers who use Google devices.

The lawsuit is currently pending in the same Northern California court.

Additional reporting by Liv McMahon