Pierluigi Paganini January 03, 2025

Apple has agreed to a $95 million settlement over a Siri eavesdropping lawsuit, denying any abuses. The settlement awaits judicial approval.

Apple will pay $95 million to settle claims that its virtual assistant Siri was used to eavesdrop on users, though the company denies the allegations.

The settlement proposed by the tech giant aims to resolve the lawsuit alleging that Siri recorded conversations without user intent for over a decade.

In August 2019, Apple apologized for Siri sharing audio with quality control workers and announced changes.

At the time, the company announced changes to how its employees handle conversations from customers who opt into the “Siri grading” program to improve voice recognition technology.

“As a result of our review, we realize we haven’t been fully living up to our high ideals, and for that we apologize. As we previously announced, we halted the Siri grading program.” Apple said.”We plan to resume later this fall when software updates are released to our users — but only after making the following changes:

• First, by default, we will no longer retain audio recordings of Siri interactions. We will continue to use computer-generated transcripts to help Siri improve. 
• Second, users will be able to opt in to help Siri improve by learning from the audio samples of their requests. We hope that many people will choose to help Siri get better, knowing that Apple respects their data and has strong privacy controls in place. Those who choose to participate will be able to opt out at any time. 
• Third, when customers opt in, only Apple employees will be allowed to listen to audio samples of the Siri interactions. Our team will work to delete any recording which is determined to be an inadvertent trigger of Siri.”

The U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White will decide on approving the settlement proposed by the company. The settlement could allow millions of consumers with Apple devices from Sept. 17, 2014, to the end of 2024 to claim up to $20 per device.

However, according to court documents, only 3% to 5% of eligible consumers are expected to file claims, and they can claim compensation for a maximum of five devices.

“[The settlement] It’s also a fraction of the roughly $1.5 billion that the lawyers representing consumers had estimated Apple could been required to pay if the company had been found of violating wiretapping and other privacy laws had the case gone to a trial.” reported AFP.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Apple)