Apple agreed to pay $95M to settle a 5 year old lawsuit accusing the company of deploying its virtual assistant Siri to eavesdrop on people using iPhones and other Siri-enabled devices.
The Wood Law Firm, which specializes in class-action lawsuits, originally filed the complaint against Apple in August 2019, shortly after The Guardian published an article alleging that Siri's microphone had been turned on to record conversations without the users' knowledge.
Apple had issued a September 2014 software update that was supposed to activate Siri only when the user says, “Hey, Siri,” but The Guardian story alleged that the virtual assistant was listening and recording conversations at other times to help improve the company’s technology.
Later, the lawsuit raised allegations that Apple shared the conversations that Siri secretly recorded with advertisers to improve consumer targeting.
Apple apologized for the practice back in 2019, but isn't acknowledging any wrongdoing in the settlement, which still must be approved by the US District judge overseeing the case.
If approved, tens of millions of consumers who owned iPhones and other Apple devices could file claims and receive up to $20 per device on up to 5 devices. (LOL, that's how much our privacy is worth?) However only 3% to 5% of eligible consumers are expected to file claims, according to estimates in court documents.
If the case had gone to trial and the lawsuit's allegations were proven to be true, Apple may have violated federal wiretapping laws and other statutes designed to protect people's privacy. Lawyers asserted that Apple's misbehavior was so egregious that the company could have been liable for $1.5B in damages if it lost the case.
“Hey, Siri… that's a lot of money.”