Apple to pay $95m to settle lawsuit accusing Siri of recording conversations

Apple has agreed to pay $95m (£76.5m) to settle a lawsuit accusing it of eavesdropping on people using Siri on their iPhones and other devices.

The lawsuit involves allegations that Apple secretly activated the Siri feature to record conversations through people’s devices for more than a decade.

Siri is a virtual assistant feature on iPhones, iPads and other devices, which lets Apple users ask questions and give instructions using their voices.

The alleged recordings occurred even when people didn’t seek to activate the virtual assistant with the trigger words, “Hey, Siri”.

The lawsuit claimed some of the recorded conversations were then shared with advertisers in an attempt to sell their products to consumers more likely to be interested in the goods and services.

The allegations of Siri snooping on people’s conversations goes against Apple’s commitment to protect customer privacy, which company CEO Tim Cook has previously called a “fundamental human right”.

Apple denies any wrongdoing and says Siri uses as little data as possible to deliver results to customers.

An Apple spokesperson said: “Siri has been engineered to protect user privacy. Siri data has never been used to build marketing profiles and it has never been sold to anyone for any purpose.”

The statement says Apple settled the case to avoid additional litigation and move on from the concerns about privacy, which were first raised in a 2019 report.

The spokesperson added: “We use Siri data to improve Siri, and we are constantly developing technologies to make Siri even more private.”

If the settlement is approved, tens of millions of consumers who owned iPhones and other Apple devices from September 17, 2014, through the end of last year, could file claims.

Each consumer could receive up to $20 (£16.12) per Siri-equipped device covered by the settlement, although the payment could be reduced or increased, depending on the volume of claims.

Only 3% to 5% of eligible consumers are expected to file claims, according to estimates in court documents, and those eligible will be limited to seeking compensation on a maximum of five devices.

If the case went to trial and Apple was found guilty of violating wiretapping and privacy laws, the company could have been required to pay as much as $1.5bn ($1.2bn).