Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit accusing Siri of recording users’ confidential conversations.
The class action lawsuit, filed in 2019, claimed that Apple contractors “regularly hear confidential medical information, drug-related talks, or sounds of some couples having sex” while working on Siri’s quality control. Although Siri is supposed to be activated by the specific wake word “Hey, Siri”, other triggers—like thunder or other loud noises—sometimes set it off.
In a comment to The Guardian at the time, Apple stated that contractors had access to “only a small portion of the recordings,” and later issued official apologies and announced it would no longer store audio.
If the settlement is approved by a judge, compensation could be awarded to Americans who owned or purchased an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, MacBook, iMac, HomePod, iPod touch, or Apple TV with Siri support from September 17, 2014, to December 31, 2024. The user must also swear that Siri was accidentally activated during a conversation that was supposed to be confidential. Individual payments will depend on how many people claim the money, but are unlikely to exceed $20 per person.
Apple is not the only one in the list of major tech companies accused of recording confidential conversations. A similar lawsuit against Google is currently pending—a win in this case could affect everyone who has purchased “Google’s own smart home speakers, Google Home, Home Mini, and Home Max; smart displays, Google Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max; as well as Pixel smartphones” from around May 18, 2016, to December.
Source: Ars Technica, The Verge