Apple has settled a lawsuit in the U.S. for $95 million. Victims claimed damages because of covert eavesdropping on Siri.
Apple is buying off a U.S. lawsuit with a $95 million settlement. The so-called class action lawsuit related to collusive behavior by voice assistant Siri. The assistant allegedly eavesdropped on users, recorded conversations and passed them on to third parties such as advertisers.
The victims cited numerous examples where they mentioned something Siri could hear, then were shown ads about that topic. Siri (like other voice assistants) waits for activation words and, in theory, doesn’t really start listening until it hears “Hey, Siri,” it said.
According to the lawsuit, Apple and Siri have misbehaved since the voice assistant was activated in 2014. According to Reuters, more than 10 million people have joined the lawsuit. Every connected user with a device running Siri will be entitled to compensation. Think iPhones and Apple Watches. High the compensation will not be: it will probably be around ten dollars.
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Apple presents itself as the lone champion of user privacy, and uses that argument, among other things, to try to keep its extremely lucrative closed ecosystem as closed as possible. This case runs counter to the way the company wants to present itself. With the settlement, Apple therefore explicitly states that it denies the allegations.
The $95 million Apple is not likely to miss strongly. The company raises about that much money on average every half day.
It is notable that despite the seriousness of the allegations, Apple chooses to buy off the process, seemingly unable or unwilling to prove sufficiently that the allegations are incorrect. Apple is not admitting its guilt, avoiding a thorough investigation with what is essentially change from its deep corporate coffers.