Apple settles Siri surveillance lawsuit for $95 million

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Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit over its voice assistant Siri breached user privacy, Reuters reports.

The claimwhich dates back to 2019, accuses Apple of recording people’s conversations even if they didn’t specifically invoke the Siri voice assistant. He quotes a Guardian article this means that Siri can randomly wake up and eavesdrop when someone says a similar word.

The lawsuit accused Apple of “unlawfully and intentionally recording confidential communications of individuals without their consent.” He also pointed to Apple’s terms of service at the time, which said that by using Siri, users agreed to share their information with Apple’s subsidiaries and agents, who would use the data collected to improve the services offered.

The plaintiffs alleged that Apple violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act, the Unfair Competition Act, the Consumer Remedies Act and the Declaratory Judgment Act.

On Tuesday, Apple filed a preliminary settlement in Oakland federal court without admitting wrongdoing. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White is expected to approve the settlement, which would see tens of millions of class members receive up to $20 for each device running Siri.

After Guardian the story was in 2019, Apple said it would be temporarily stop the program which forced contractors to listen to recorded Siri conversations for accuracy and quality and allowed clients to opt out of such training.

AND similar lawsuit regarding Google Assistant is pending in a California court.