Apple Agrees to Pay $95 Million to Settle Siri Listening Lawsuit

Tech behemoth Apple has agreed to pay out $95 million to settle a court case that alleged some of its devices were eavesdropping on users without their consent.

The claimants accused the firm of allowing Siri, their voice-activated digital assistant, to listen to people, and also that the firm had shared voice recordings with advertisers.

Apple denied allegations of selling Siri-related data, stating that the settlement had only been agreed to in order to avoid further litigation, and that data collected by the tool is merely used to improve its service and functionality.

“Siri data has never been used to build marketing profiles,” an Apple spokesman commented, “and it has never been sold to anyone for any purpose.”

They said that the virtual assistant tool had been “engineered to protect user privacy” from the start, and that enhancing its privacy had always been paramount.

“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.”

In the preliminary settlement, the tech giant denied any claims that it “recorded, disclosed to third parties, or failed to delete, conversations recorded as the result of a Siri activation” without user consent.

The firm’s lawyers said that they will confirm they permanently deleted “individual Siri audio recordings collected by Apple prior to October 2019”.

The claimants, however, argued that Apple recorded users who had not yet used the initiating phrase “Hey, Siri”, therefore making the activation unintentional.

Fumiko Lopez, the lead plaintiff, claimed that she and her daughter were recorded without their permission.

The pair alleged that they were served targeted ads following a conversation about products which included Air Jordans, and that this occurred because advertisers, who had identified certain keywords in received recordings, were able to deliver more focused ads.

Apple, who turned over close to $95 billion (in the three months up to 28 September 2024), will now avoid the risk of facing a court case which could have potentially resulted in a bigger payout.

The tech giant has been involved in several class action suits in recent times, including January 2024 which saw a $500 million payout after claims it intentionally slowed down US-based iPhones.

In March, a $490 million payout was agreed in a class action suit led by Norfolk County Council in the UK, and later in November, consumer group Which? began their own case, accusing Apple’s iCloud service of ripping off customers.