Apple agrees to settle 2019 Siri privacy lawsuit for $95 million

Apple moved to settles down Five-year-old class action lawsuit over Siri privacy. Reuters Reports The proposed settlement was filed Tuesday in Oakland, California. The company agreed to pay $95 million to the class members, who are estimated to number tens of millions of Siri-enabled device owners. US District Judge Jeffrey White needs to approve the settlement before it becomes official.

The lawsuit stemmed from a 2019 report that quality control contractors at Apple He can hear sensitive information regularly It was accidentally recorded by the voice assistant “Hey Siri” feature.. The clips were said to include medical information, criminal activities and even “sexual encounters.” Reuters Apple says it denied any wrongdoing in agreeing to settle the case.

Engadget has reached out to Apple for comment. We will update this story if we hear back.

Two of the plaintiffs claimed that their inadvertently recorded mentions of Nike Air Jordans and Olive Garden led to restaurants receiving advertisements for those products. After talking about the matter with his doctor, another plaintiff said he received advertisements for a brand-name surgical treatment.

After the original story broke more than five years ago, Apple highlighted the layers of privacy protections and stressed that the recordings were not linked to Apple accounts. It also said its quality control teams studied the clips in “secure facilities” and were bound by “strict confidentiality agreements.”

After internal review, Apple The program was suspended She admitted that she does not “fully commit” to her ideals. The company returned to reviewing Siri recordings soon after, but with some big changes. It is said Hundreds of quality control contractors fired It changed its policy so that only Apple employees can review private Siri data. He also moved on and started deleting unintentionally played tracks Require users to subscribe To share Siri recordings or texts.

Reuters He points out that the proposed cash amount of $95 million equates to about nine hours of profit for the company. (Nice work if you can get it.) The settlement class period starts from September 17, 2014 — when Apple launched “Hey Siri” in 2014. iOS 8 – Through December 31, 2024. If you own a Siri-enabled mobile product during that period (and Judge White approved the settlement), you could get up to $20 per device. However, you will have to join the class, and it is not yet clear how to do that.