Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that its Siri voice assistant inadvertently captured private conversations and allowed them to be overheard by human employees.
The settlement, first reported by Bloomberg, could result in payments of up to $20 per device for eligible users in the United States, covering up to five Siri-enabled devices per individual. However, the deal still requires approval from a judge before any payments can be distributed.
If the settlement is approved, it will apply to U.S.-based users who owned or purchased Siri-enabled devices such as the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, MacBook, iMac, HomePod, iPod touch, or Apple TV between September 17, 2014, and December 31, 2024. To qualify, users must also attest under oath that Siri was accidentally activated during conversations meant to remain private or confidential. The exact payout will depend on how many people file claims, meaning the maximum $20 per device may decrease based on the number of participants.
This lawsuit stems from a 2019 investigation by The Guardian, which revealed that third-party contractors hired by Apple to improve Siri’s functionality often overheard sensitive conversations. According to the report, contractors regularly listened to recordings that included confidential medical discussions, illegal activities, and even intimate moments between couples. Siri, which is supposed to activate only when a wake word is spoken, was allegedly triggered unintentionally by innocuous sounds like a zipper. In response to the backlash, Apple apologized and promised to stop retaining audio recordings for quality control purposes.
The plaintiffs claimed Siri had recorded them without their consent multiple times, even when no wake word was spoken. One of the plaintiffs was a minor.
Apple isn’t alone in facing such allegations. Google and Amazon have also been accused of allowing human workers to listen to conversations captured by their respective virtual assistants, even when activation was unintentional. A similar lawsuit against Google is currently underway.
These revelations have raised serious questions about privacy and the practices of tech companies when it comes to improving voice-recognition technologies.
