Apple settles $95M eavesdropping lawsuit
Richard Turner
Apple settles $95M eavesdropping lawsuit: Has it done enough to address privacy concerns around Siri?
Why is Apple settling a lawsuit alleging that 'accidental' Siri recordings were used to deliver targeted ads? Is it any safer to use the voice assistant today?
Updated: January 6, 2025 18:27 IST
iPhone 15 misses out on the new ChatGPT-powered Siri. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)
Apple will pay $95 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that alleged the tech giant’s virtual assistant, Siri, recorded users’ conversations without their consent. Under the proposed settlement, Apple will compensate owners of Siri-enabled devices with payments starting with at least $20 each.
While agreeing to the settlement, Apple denied any wrongdoing. The settlement allows the company to avoid the uncertainties of a trial and the potential for significant legal expenses. Had the lawsuit proceeded to trial and Apple lost, the tech giant would have been liable to pay $1.5 billion in damages.
What were the plaintiffs’ allegations?
In 2019, The Guardian reported that an Apple whistleblower alleged that contractors hired by the company overheard private user conversations while conducting quality assurance tests on Siri. These recordings reportedly included users discussing sensitive medical information and other private matters, captured by Siri due to unintended activations.
Among the recordings, some allegedly captured intimate moments, such as couples having sex. Contractors were said to have listened to up to 1,000 recordings daily.
The whistleblower had further claimed that the private user conversations were likely recorded by mistake as normal sounds like the “sound of a zip” could be misheard by Siri as the wake word and activate itself.
Following these revelations, two plaintiffs filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple, accusing the tech giant of eavesdropping and recording private conversations without users ever saying the wake phrase “Hey, Siri.”
The lawsuit also accused Apple of sharing these recordings with advertisers, who analysed the conversations for keywords to target users with ads. One plaintiff reported being served product ads for Air Jordan sneakers and Olive Garden after mentioning them during private conversations. Another claimed they were targeted with ads for a specific surgical treatment after discussing it privately with a doctor.
One recording reportedly captured a minor who did not have an Apple account, raising concerns about consent, as the minor could not authorise such recordings even if they wanted to.
How did Apple respond?
In 2018, Apple addressed the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce in a letter asserting that only a “small portion” of Siri requests were graded for quality assurance and that those requests were not linked to users’ Apple IDs.
“iPhone doesn’t listen to consumers except to recognise the clear, unambiguous audio trigger ‘Hey, Siri’,” Apple stated, denying that it collects audio recordings of users without consent. “Apple doesn’t provide third-party app developers with access to Siri utterances. […] When Siri is listening to a user’s request, a visual indicator is presented to the user,” the letter read.
“Siri responses are analysed in secure facilities and all reviewers are under the obligation to adhere to Apple’s strict confidentiality requirements,” it added.
However, the company issued a formal apology after The Guardian’s 2019 report on how third-party contractors had access to Siri recordings of users that were full of their private details.
“We realise we haven’t been fully living up to our high ideals, and for that we apologise,” Apple’s statement read.
It also announced several changes to Siri’s privacy policy such as letting users opt out of data collection for analytics, not retaining audio recordings of Siri interactions by default, using computer-generated transcripts to help Siri improve, restricting access to audio samples of Siri interactions to Apple employees only, and deleting any recording that was found to have been captured by inadvertently triggering Siri.
Who is eligible for Apple’s payout?
In the US, class-action lawsuits are filed by a small number of plaintiffs who are willing to go to court on behalf of a larger group of people. If the plaintiffs win the case, the defendant has to pay out all claimants.
To be eligible for Apple’s $20 payout, the claimant has to be based in the US. They had to have owned a Siri-enabled Apple device between 2014 and 2019. They will reportedly have to swear under oath that they experienced Siri activating unintentionally and had private conversations recorded by the voice assistant.
As per court documents, claimants will be able to file their claims through a website that will be set up within 45 days. The deadline to file claims in the Apple-Siri eavesdropping class-action lawsuit is May 15, 2025.
While the total settlement fund is $95 million, not all of it will go to the claimants. Lawyers who argued the case may seek under $30 million as legal fees in addition to $1.1 million for expenses.
For context, Apple’s net income in its latest fiscal year was $93.74 billion. The settlement still requires approval by Judge Jeffrey White of US District Court for the Northern District of California. Apple has suggested February 14, 2025 as the decision date in the court.
How to turn off Siri on an iPhone, iPad, and Mac
News of the settlement is bound to spark worry among Apple users about their privacy. Here are a few ways that Siri can be disabled on Apple devices.
If you are using an iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > Siri > Talk to Siri > Off. To prevent the voice assistant from being activated altogether, turn off Press Home for Siri or Press Side Button for Siri.
If you are using a Mac device, click on the Apple logo in the top-left corner of the screen, go to System Settings > Siri & Spotlight. Then, toggle off Ask Siri.
Original article:
https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/apple-settlement-siri-lawsuit-what-to-know-9761331/lite/
Richard,
“Reality is the leading cause of stress for those who are in touch with it.”
– Jane Wagner, from The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe.
My web site: https://www.turner42.com