Apple to pay $95 million in Siri spying case

Tech giant Apple on Thursday agreed to pay $95 million to settle a proposed class-action lawsuit that claimed its Siri voice assistant violated users’ privacy.

A preliminary settlement was filed Tuesday night in federal court in Oakland, California, which must be approved by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White.

Mobile device owners who filed the complaint claimed that Apple routinely recorded private conversations after they inadvertently activated Siri. The suit added that those conversations had then been disclosed to third parties, including advertisers who had shown some users ads tailored to conversations they were having.

Voice assistants like Siri can be opened in response to certain verbal prompts that include “warm words” like “Hey, Siri.”

APPLE REPORTEDLY HAS foldable and thinner iPhone models in the pipeline

iPhones on a table

Apple (Joe Raedle/Getty Images/Getty Images)

Two of the plaintiffs claimed that their mentions of Air Jordan sneakers and Olive Garden restaurants had caused them to receive targeted ads for those products.

Another claimant claimed he had received advertisements for a surgical treatment after he had discussed it in what he believed to have been a private conversation with his doctor.

Ticker Security Last Change Change in %
AAPL APPLE INC. 243.36 -0.49

-0.20%

Class members, estimated to number in the tens of millions, may receive up to $20 for each Siri-enabled device they own, such as iPhones and Apple Watches. The class period runs from September 17, 2014 to December 31, 2024 and began when Siri incorporated the “Hey, Siri” feature.

APPLE IPO ANNIVERSARY: HOW MUCH WOULD A $1,000 INVESTMENT BE WORTH TODAY?

Apple logo

Apple Inc. signage at the company’s Fifth Avenue store in New York on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. (Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Apple denied wrongdoing in accepting the settlement.

The $95 million settlement represents a profit of about nine hours for Apple, which had net income of about $93.74 billion in the most recent fiscal year.

Lawyers are seeking up to $28.5 million in fees, plus $1.1 million in expenses, as compensation from the settlement fund.

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

A similar lawsuit is pending on behalf of users of Google’s voice assistant in a federal court in San Jose that is part of the same district as the Oakland court hearing the Apple case. The plaintiffs in the Google case are represented by the same companies as in the Apple case.

Reuters contributed to this report.