Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit over privacy concerns related to its Siri voice assistant. The lawsuit accused Siri of recording users' private conversations without consent. The settlement, filed in an Oakland, California court, awaits approval from U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White.
The lawsuit claimed that Siri sometimes recorded conversations unintentionally and shared the data with advertisers and third parties. Siri is supposed to activate with the command "Hey, Siri," but plaintiffs argued this wasn't always the case. Examples included users receiving ads for products they discussed privately.
Individuals who owned Siri-enabled devices between September 17, 2014, and December 31, 2024, may receive up to $20 per device. This could affect tens of millions of users. Lawyers intend to request $28.5 million in fees and $1.1 million in expenses from the settlement amount. Apple denies any wrongdoing but chose to settle to avoid further legal proceedings.
The $95 million payout is minor for Apple, which recorded $93.74 billion in profits last year. This amount is roughly equivalent to Apple's earnings in nine hours. In a related case, Google is facing a lawsuit over its Voice Assistant in the same district court, with the same legal team representing the plaintiffs.
The case is titled Lopez et al v. Apple Inc., filed in the Northern District of California under case number 19-04577. The settlement's approval is pending and highlights ongoing concerns about how tech companies manage user data and privacy.
With inputs from Reuters