 "Apple agrees to pay $95 million to settle lawsuit over Siri eavesdropping on unsuspecting customers")
Apple, the tech giant known for its strong stance on privacy, has decided to settle a long-standing lawsuit accusing it of using Siri, its popular virtual assistant, to eavesdrop on users. The company has agreed to a hefty $95 million settlement, filed in a federal court in Oakland, California. The legal wrangling began five years ago when Apple was accused of secretly recording conversations through its devices, even without users activating Siri with the usual “Hey, Siri” prompt.
The case has stirred up concerns over whether the company’s actions matched its public image of championing privacy, a principle Apple’s CEO often described as a basic human right. Apple, however, has not admitted to any wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which still awaits final approval from the court.
Siri causes trouble for Apple
The lawsuit alleged that Apple’s devices, including iPhones and others equipped with Siri, had been capturing user conversations for over a decade. These recordings reportedly happened without user consent, even when Siri wasn’t intentionally triggered.
Adding fuel to the fire, it was claimed that some of these conversations were shared with advertisers, potentially to target consumers with products tailored to their interests. This revelation struck a sour note for many, given Apple’s consistent messaging about safeguarding user data.
Compensation for affected users
If approved, the settlement could see millions of Apple users eligible for compensation. Anyone who owned Siri-enabled devices between September 2014 and the end of last year can file claims, with a potential payout of up to $20 per device.
However, payouts might vary depending on how many users actually come forward to claim their share. Historically, only a small percentage of eligible consumers — between 3 per cent and 5 per cent — tend to file such claims. Users will be capped at filing claims for up to five devices.
Small price for big profits?
While $95 million sounds substantial, it’s a drop in the ocean for Apple, whose profits since 2014 have soared to an eye-watering $705 billion. Even the potential $1.5 billion Apple might have faced if the case had gone to trial wouldn’t have put a significant dent in its bottom line. Meanwhile, the lawyers who took on Apple are expected to receive nearly $30 million from the settlement fund to cover fees and expenses.
The case serves as a stark reminder that even privacy-savvy companies can face scrutiny when actions don’t align with promises, leaving users questioning how safe their data truly is.
Apple responds
Apple has consistently denied allegations that Siri recordings were used for advertising purposes, emphasising its commitment to privacy. The company asserts that Siri data is never sold, used to build marketing profiles, or shared with advertisers. Designed to prioritise offline processing and minimise data use, Siri employs features like random identifiers to unlink data from users’ identities and processes most audio requests directly on devices equipped with Apple Neural Engine.
Apple has also implemented safeguards, including the ability for users to review and delete Siri transcripts in settings. Since 2019, audio recordings of Siri interactions are no longer retained by default, and users can opt in or out of sharing audio samples to improve Siri. Even when opted in, only Apple employees review audio, and accidental recordings are deleted. These steps underscore Apple’s efforts to align Siri with its privacy principles while maintaining functionality and user control.
In response to this settlement, an Apple spokesperson shared a statement with Firstpost, saying that they settled this case to avoid additional litigation so the tech giant could move forward from concerns about third-party grading that they already addressed in 2019.
“Siri has been engineered to protect user privacy from the beginning. Siri data has never been used to build marketing profiles and it has never been sold to anyone for any purpose. We use Siri data to improve Siri, and we are constantly developing technologies to make Siri even more private,” the statement read.
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