Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the company of using its virtual assistant, Siri, to listen in on people using iPhones and other devices.
The settlement, filed in a federal court in Oakland, California, aims to resolve a 5-year-old lawsuit that claimed Apple activated Siri to record conversations without users’ consent, spanning over a decade.
According to the lawsuit, Siri would start recording conversations even when users didn’t intentionally activate it by saying, “Hey, Siri.” These recordings were allegedly shared with advertisers to target consumers based on their interests.
The allegations about a snoopy Siri contradicted Apple’s long-running commitment to protect the privacy of its customers – a crusade that CEO Tim Cook has often framed as a fight to preserve “a fundamental human right.”
Apple isn’t acknowledging any wrongdoing in the settlement, which still must be approved by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White. Lawyers in the case have proposed scheduling a Feb. 14 court hearing in Oakland to review the terms.
If the settlement is approved, tens of millions of consumers who owned iPhones and other Apple devices from Sept. 17, 2014, through the end of last year could file claims. Each consumer could receive up to $20 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.
Eligible consumers will be limited to seeking compensation on a maximum of five devices.
The settlement represents a sliver of the $705 billion in profits that Apple has pocketed since September 2014. It’s also a fraction of the roughly $1.5 billion that the lawyers representing consumers had estimated Apple could been required to pay if the company had been found of violating wiretapping and other privacy laws had the case gone to a trial.
The attorneys who filed the lawsuit may seek up to $29.6 million from the settlement fund to cover their fees and other expenses, according to court documents.
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