WEB DESK: Apple will pay $95 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought against it over allegations that its Siri voice assistant recorded private conversations without permission, with some of those recordings being listened to by human contractors. According to a report in Bloomberg, the agreement still needs final court approval.
If approved, the proposed class action settlement will involve a class consisting of United States residents who used Siri-enabled devices between September 17, 2014, and December 31, 2024. The eligible users may receive up to $20 per device, with a maximum of five devices, though this is subject to the number of claims submitted.
Who is eligible?
To qualify for the claim, an individual must meet the following criteria:
- You need to own one or have bought any of the Siri-enabled devices, including iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, MacBooks, iMacs, HomePods, iPod touches, or Apple TVs.
- A sworn statement, notarised that Siri was activated in error during a private or confidential conversation.
This class action lawsuit follows the publication of a 2019 investigation by the Guardian that demonstrated Apple contractors sometimes heard users’ confidential information while reviewing the quality of Siri.
These recordings included, among others, private medical discussions, personal conversations, and even intimate moments. Though the feature is designed to trigger only upon hearing its wake word, whistleblowers said Siri would also pick up on more everyday sounds, like a zipper.
Following the controversy, Apple issued a public apology, tightened its privacy policies, and announced it would no longer retain audio recordings of Siri conversations used for quality assurance.
Broader industry issues
Apple is not alone in these privacy concerns. Google and Amazon were sued for letting human reviewers listen to recordings from their voice assistants—when those recordings were recorded accidentally. These cases point to bigger issues of privacy in the era of AI-driven technologies.
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