Apple to pay $95 million settlement for Siri listening to your private conversations
Apple has agreed to pay $95 million in a class-action settlement alleging that private Siri conversations were inadvertently recorded and listened to by third-party contractors.
If U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White approves the proposed settlement, filed on Tuesday in Oakland, CA, federal court, users impacted will receive up to $20 per Apple device with Siri, such as the iPhone and Apple Watch.
The lawsuit centers around customer complaints that Siri was unintentionally activated and a 2019 report from a whistleblower via The Guardian that Apple contractors heard voice recordings while testing for quality control. This included "confidential medical information, drug deals, and recordings of couples having sex," according to the investigation. Siri is only supposed to activate upon hearing the wake word "hey Siri," but there were reported instances of Siri being triggered by other things — such as the sound of a zipper, an Apple Watch being raised in a certain way, and hearing a voice.
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Apple users claimed private conversations were recorded and then shared with third-party advertisers. They would then see ads for products mentioned in certain conversations and even a surgical treatment after discussing it with their doctor. Apple subsequently issued a formal apology and said it would no longer save voice recordings.
In a statement to Mashable, an Apple spokesperson said, "Siri data has never been used to build marketing profiles and it has never been sold to anyone for any purpose. Apple settled this case to avoid additional litigation so we can move forward from concerns about third-party grading that we already addressed in 2019."
The lawsuit spans the time period from Sept. 17, 2014, to Dec. 31, 2024. In order for Apple users to claim their part of the settlement, they must submit a claim for up to five Apple devices with Siri (iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, MacBook, iMac, HomePod, iPod touch, or Apple TV) and swear under oath that they inadvertently activated Siri "during a conversation intended to be confidential or private," said the settlement proposal.
Apple isn't the only company in trouble for privacy violations incurred by voice assistants. Google is in the midst of a similar class-action lawsuit regarding Google Assistant being triggered without its wake words.
UPDATE: Jan. 8, 2025, 11:21 a.m. EST This story has been updated to include a statement from Apple.
Cecily is a tech reporter at Mashable who covers AI, Apple, and emerging tech trends. Before getting her master's degree at Columbia Journalism School, she spent several years working with startups and social impact businesses for Unreasonable Group and B Lab. Before that, she co-founded a startup consulting business for emerging entrepreneurial hubs in South America, Europe, and Asia. You can find her on X at @cecily_mauran.
