Apple has agreed to pay $95 million in cash to settle a proposed class action lawsuit claiming its Siri voice assistant violated users' privacy. The preliminary settlement was filed on Tuesday in the federal court of Oakland, California, and awaits approval from U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White.
The lawsuit arose from complaints that Apple recorded users' private conversations after they accidentally activated Siri and then disclosed those recordings to third parties, including advertisers. Voice assistants like Siri generally respond to “hot words” such as “Hey, Siri."
Two plaintiffs in the case alleged that mentioning specific products like Air Jordan sneakers and Olive Garden restaurants triggered targeted ads for those items. One plaintiff also reported receiving advertisements for a surgical treatment brand after discussing the issue with his doctor, which he believed was a private conversation.
The class period of the lawsuit extends from September 17, 2014, to December 31, 2024, beginning with Siri's introduction of the "Hey, Siri" feature, which is claimed to have caused the unauthorized recordings.
Class members, who are estimated to number in the tens of millions, may receive compensation of up to $20 per Siri-enabled device, such as iPhones and Apple Watches. Although Apple denied any wrongdoing, it agreed to the settlement.
Plaintiff attorneys are seeking up to $28.5 million in fees and $1.1 million in expenses from the settlement fund.
The $95 million settlement is a minor sum for Apple, which posted a net income of $93.74 billion in its most recent fiscal year. A similar lawsuit regarding Google’s Voice Assistant is currently pending in the federal court in San Jose, California, with the same law firms representing the plaintiffs as in the Apple case.
The case is identified as Lopez et al v. Apple Inc., U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 19-04577.
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