Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a Siri privacy lawsuit
Apple has agreed to pay US$95 million to settle a proposed class action lawsuit claiming that its voice-activated Siri assistant violated users’ privacy, reports Reuters.
A preliminary settlement was filed on Tuesday night in the Oakland, California federal court, and requires approval by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White. Class members, estimated in the tens of millions, may receive up to $20 per Siri-enabled device, such as iPhones and Apple Watches. Apple denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle, notes Reuters.
The lawsuit was filed on Aug. 7, 2019, and alleged that Apple violates several California laws, including the California Invasion of Privacy act. This seemed to be in response to concerns raised by a Guardian story over how recordings of Siri queries are used for quality control.
Following the report, Apple suspended the program and said it would review the process that it uses, called “grading,” to determine whether Siri is hearing queries correctly, or being invoked by mistake. Apple said it would also issue a software update that will let Siri users choose whether they participate in the grading process or not.
The Guardian report claimed Apple contractors regularly hear confidential medical information, drug deals, and recordings of couples having sex, as part of their job providing quality control, or grading, Siri. The article added that, although Apple doesn’t explicitly disclose it in its consumer-facing privacy documentation, “a small proportion of Siri recordings are passed on to contractors working for the company around the world.”
The lawsuit included a request for a court ruling that Apple has violated California’s privacy laws and civil code. Also, it demanded that the tech giant must delete all recordings of class members and take measures to prevent further recording of the class members without their consent.
In February 2021, Apple won a ruling that tossed out the consumer lawsuit that alleges the tech giant’s voice-activated software records conversations without user consent. However, in September 2021, Judge Jeffrey White in Oakland, California, said the suit could be revised and refiled.
The post Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a Siri privacy lawsuit appeared first on MacTech.com.
