Apple switched to decide five-year-old class action lawsuit over Siri privacy. Reuters reports that the proposed settlement was filed Tuesday in Oakland, California. The company agreed to pay $95 million to group members, estimated to be tens of millions of owners of Siri-enabled devices. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White must approve the settlement before it becomes official.
The lawsuit was based on a 2019 report that Apple quality control contractors could regularly hear confidential information accidentally recorded by voice assistant Hey Siri feature. The clips reportedly include medical information, criminal activity and even “sexual encounters.” Reuters says Apple denies wrongdoing after agreeing to settle the case.
Engadget has reached out to Apple for comment. We will update this story if we hear back.
The two plaintiffs said their inadvertently recorded mentions of Nike Air Jordans and Olive Garden restaurants resulted in advertisements for those products. After talking with his doctor about this, another plaintiff said he came across an advertisement for a brand-name surgical treatment.
After the original story came to light five-plus years ago, Apple emphasized its levels of privacy protection and emphasized that the recordings were not tied to Apple accounts. The company also said its quality assurance teams reviewed the clips in “secure facilities” and were bound by “strict confidentiality agreements.”
After Apple's internal review suspended the program and admitted that he did not “fully live up” to his ideals. Soon after, the company returned to checking Siri recordings, but with some big changes. It is reported that laid off hundreds of quality control contractors and changed its policy to ensure only Apple employees can view Siri's personal data. He also moved on to deleting randomly triggered audio clips and began requiring users to consent to share recordings or transcripts with Siri.
Reuters notes that the proposed $95 million in cash represents about nine hours of profit for the company. (Great job if you can get it.) The agreement begins on September 17, 2014, when Apple launched the “Hey Siri” feature in iOS 8 — until December 31, 2024. If you owned a Siri-enabled mobile product during this period (and Judge White approves the settlement), you could receive up to $20 per device. However, you will have to join the class, and it is not yet clear how to do this.