Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit alleging its voice assistant Siri violated user privacy, Reuters reports.
The lawsuit, which dates back to 2019, accuses Apple of recording people’s conversations even when they didn’t specifically summon the Siri voice assistant. It cites a Guardian article that said Siri could wake up accidentally and listen in when someone said a similar word.
The lawsuit accused Apple of “unlawful and intentional recording of individuals’ confidential communications without their consent.” It also pointed to Apple’s terms of service at the time, which stated that by using Siri, users agreed to share their information with Apple’s subsidiaries and agents, who would use the collected data to improve the services offered.
The plaintiffs alleged that Apple violated California’s Invasion of Privacy Act, Unfair Competition Law, Consumers Legal Remedies Act, and the Declaratory Judgment Act.
On Tuesday, Apple filed for a preliminary settlement in Oakland’s federal court without admitting wrongdoing. US District Judge Jeffrey White must approve the settlement, after which tens of millions of class members could be eligible to receive up to $20 for each device that runs Siri.
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After the Guardian story ran in 2019, Apple said it would temporarily halt a program that had contractors listen to recorded Siri conversations for accuracy and quality and let customers opt out of that training.
A similar lawsuit concerning Google Assistant is pending in California court.
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