Apple consented to pay $95 million in cash to resolve a class action lawsuit alleging privacy violations by its voice-activated Siri assistant. US District Judge Jeffrey White must approve a preliminary settlement that was submitted to the federal court in Oakland, California, on Tuesday evening. Owners of mobile devices claimed that Apple frequently recorded their private chats after they accidentally turned on Siri and shared them with advertisers and other third parties.
Usually, voice assistants respond when users use “hot words” like “Hey, Siri.” Two plaintiffs claimed that when they mentioned Olive Garden restaurants and Air Jordan footwear, advertisements for those goods were triggered. Another claimed that after privately discussing it with his doctor, he received advertisements for a name-brand surgical procedure. Classes begin on September 17, 2014, and end on December 31, 2024. The unapproved recordings are said to have started when Siri added the “Hey, Siri” capability.
The projected tens of millions of class members might get up to $20 for each Siri-enabled gadget, such as Apple Watches and iPhones. Apple agreed to a settlement while denying any wrongdoing.
Requests for comment on Thursday were not immediately answered by the Cupertino, California-based business or its attorneys. Similar requests were not immediately answered by the plaintiffs’ attorneys. They could ask the settlement fund for up to $28.5 million in fees and $1.1 million for costs.
With a net income of $93.74 billion in its most recent fiscal year, Apple made roughly nine hours of profit on the $95 million.
In the same district as the Oakland court, a related case on behalf of Google Voice Assistant customers is currently underway in a federal court in San Jose, California. The same legal companies who handled the Apple case are now representing the plaintiffs. Apple Inc. v. Lopez et al., US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 19-04577, is the case in question.