Apple to Pay $95m to Settle Siri Listening Case
upstart writes:
The iPhone 6 and Apple Watch were two devices owned by the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit:
Apple has agreed to pay $95m (77m) to settle a court case alleging some of its devices were listening to people without their permission.
The tech giant was accused of eavesdropping on its customers through its virtual assistant Siri.
The claimants also allege voice recordings were shared with advertisers.
Apple, which has not admitted any wrongdoing, has been approached for comment.
In the preliminary settlement, the tech firm denies any wrongdoing, as well as claims that it "recorded, disclosed to third parties, or failed to delete, conversations recorded as the result of a Siri activation" without consent.
Apple's lawyers also say they will confirm they have "permanently deleted individual Siri audio recordings collected by Apple prior to October 2019".
But the claimants say the tech firm recorded people who activated the virtual assistant unintentionally - without using the phrase "Hey, Siri" to wake it.
And they say advertisers who received the recordings could then look for keywords in them to better target ads.
[...] According to the court documents, each claimant - who has to be based in the US -could be paid up to $20 per Siri-enabled device they owned between 2014 and 2019.
In this case, the lawyers could take 30% of the fee plus expenses - which comes to just under $30m.
By settling, Apple not only denies wrongdoing, but it also avoids the risk of facing a court case which could potentially mean a much larger pay out.
The California company earned $94.9bn in the three months up to 28 September 2024.
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