Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that the company's devices recorded users without their consent. This was reported by BBC.
The main accusation relates to the functioning of the virtual assistant Siri, which activated without the voice command "Hey, Siri" and transmitted recordings to advertisers for keyword analysis and targeted advertising.
The lead plaintiff, Fumiko Lopez, stated that after discussing certain products, such as Air Jordans sneakers, she began to see relevant advertisements.
The court proceedings are set to conclude on February 14, 2025, in Northern California.
Under the terms of the agreement, plaintiffs residing in the U.S. may receive up to $20 for each Siri-enabled device they used between 2014 and 2019. Additionally, the plaintiffs' attorneys will receive 30% of the total compensation amount, which is expected to be around $30 million.
The company stated that all audio recordings of Siri made before October 2019 have been deleted.
Despite agreeing to the payout, Apple denies any wrongdoing and claims that it "never recorded, transmitted to third parties, or stored conversations without user consent."
This is not the first significant lawsuit against Apple. In January 2024, the company began payouts in a $500 million case where it was accused of intentionally slowing down older iPhone models. In November 2024, the British consumer rights organization Which? filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing it of deceiving customers through its iCloud service.
Previously, Spot reported that Apple is developing a more conversational version of Siri to compete with AI assistants.