Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the privacy-minded company of deploying its Siri virtual assistant to listen in on people using its iPhone and other fashionable devices.
The proposed settlement filed Tuesday in federal court in Oakland, California, would resolve a 5-year-old lawsuit over allegations that Apple surreptitiously enabled Siri to record conversations via iPhones and other devices equipped with the virtual assistant for over a decade.
The alleged recordings took place even when people weren’t trying to activate the virtual assistant with the trigger words “Hey, Siri.” Some of the recorded conversations were then shared with advertisers in an effort to sell their products to consumers more likely to be interested in the goods and services, the suit claims.
The allegations about a snooping Siri contradicted Apple’s long-standing commitment to protecting its customers’ privacy — a crusade that CEO Tim Cook has often framed as a fight to preserve “a basic human right.”
Apple admits no wrongdoing in the settlement, which still must be approved by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White. Lawyers involved in the case have proposed setting a court hearing for Feb. 14 in Oakland to review the terms.
If the settlement is approved, tens of millions of consumers who owned iPhones and other Apple devices between September 17, 2014 and the end of last year could file a claim. Each consumer could receive up to $20 per Siri-equipped device covered by the settlement, although the payment could be reduced or increased, depending on the volume of claims. According to estimates contained in court documents, only 3 to 5 percent of eligible consumers are expected to file a claim.
Eligible consumers will be limited to claiming compensation on up to five devices.
The settlement represents a fraction of the $705 billion in profits that Apple has pocketed since September 2014. It is also a fraction of the roughly $1.5 billion that lawyers representing consumers had estimated Apple could be required to pay. pay if the company had been found guilty of wiretapping violations. and other privacy laws if the case had gone to trial.
The attorneys who filed the suit can seek up to $29.6 million from the settlement fund to cover their fees and other expenses, according to court documents.