Apple has agreed to pay $95 million in cash to settle a proposed class-action lawsuit that claims its voice-activated assistant Siri violated users’ privacy by listening to them without their consent.
iPhone owners complained that Apple routinely recorded their private conversations after inadvertently activating Siri and revealed them to third parties, such as advertisers. A preliminary agreement was filed Tuesday night in federal court in Oakland, California, and requires approval from U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White.
Voice assistants often react when people use “hot words” like “Hey, Siri.” Two plaintiffs said their mentions of Air Jordan sneakers and Olive Garden restaurants triggered ads for those products. Another said he was shown ads for a brand-name surgical treatment after discussing it, he thought privately, with his doctor. The plaintiffs alleged that Apple did not receive consent before recording their conversations and, in fact, could not receive consent from one of the plaintiffs because he was a minor and did not have an Apple account at the time of recording.
The lawsuit alleges that the violations occurred from September 17, 2014, to December 31, 2024. They began when Siri incorporated the “Hey, Siri” feature that allegedly led to unauthorized recordings. Members of the group, estimated to number in the tens of millions, can receive up to $20 per Siri-enabled device, such as iPhones and Apple Watches.
Apple denied wrongdoing by agreeing to settle. The company has persistently emphasized the importance it places on privacy. In 2018, Apple CEO Tim Cook accused other technology companies of surveillance, saying that “the desire to put profits before privacy is nothing new.” The company also stated in a letter to Congress in 2018 that Apple iPhone devices do not “listen” to users except to detect the “Hey Siri” audio trigger.
But in a 2019 Guardian report, which cites the original complaint, an Apple whistleblower said contractors regularly listened to users’ private conversations when performing quality checks on Siri. Those conversations included confidential medical information, drug deals and recordings of couples having sex. Some of those conversations were recorded by mistake, the whistleblower said, because Siri can confuse things like the “zip sound” with the wake word.
At the time, Apple said that only a “small portion” of Siri requests are rated for quality and those requests are not associated with the user’s Apple ID: “Siri responses are analyzed in secure facilities and all Reviewers are required to comply with Apple’s requirements.” strict confidentiality requirements.” The company later slow the quality improvement program and stopped recording audio by default.
The Cupertino, California-based company and its lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday. Attorneys for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to similar requests. They can seek up to $28.5 million in fees, plus $1.1 million in expenses, from the settlement fund.
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The $95 million represents about nine hours of profit for Apple, whose net income was $93.74 billion in its last fiscal year.
A similar lawsuit on behalf of Google Voice Assistant users is pending in federal court in San Jose, California, in the same district as the Oakland court. The plaintiffs are represented by the same law firms as in the Apple case.