Apple to pay $95 million settlement over Siri “listening” to conversations

Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the company of eavesdropping on users through its voice-activated assistant, Siri.

The lawsuit claimed that some of its iPhones and smartwatches unintentionally activated Siri and recorded users’ conversations, sharing the audio with third-party advertisers.

Voice-activated assistants react when people use “hot words” such as “Hey, Siri”, or for Amazon’s Alexa, simply: “Alexa”.

Two plaintiffs said that they received ads for Air Jordan shoes and Olive Garden restaurants after talking about them in what they thought were confidential conversations.

Another said that after a private conversation with his doctor about a brand-name surgical treatment, he began seeing ads for the same treatment.

They claimed to have not used the phrase “Hey, Siri” to wake Apple’s voice assistant.

Allegedly, advertisers who received the recordings could then search for keywords in order to target ads.

The class period for the lawsuit covers from September 17, 2014, through December 31, 2024, starting from when Apple introduced the “Hey, Siri” feature, which plaintiffs allege led to unauthorised voice recordings.

Apple has proposed a decision date of February 14. If successful, tens of millions of people could receive up to $20 per Siri-equipped device.

As noted by Reuters, $95 million is about nine hours of profit for Apple, highlighting that such lawsuits come as a business cost for big tech companies.

Apple has explicitly denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle, 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.