Apple Agrees to $95M Settlement in Eavesdropping Lawsuit Involving Siri – One America News Network
OAN Staff Blake Wolf
3:57 PM – Friday, January 3, 2025
Apple has consented to pay $95 million to resolve a lawsuit that claims the company violated user privacy by using its AI assistant “Siri” to listen in on conversations of users with Apple devices.
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The settlement agreement, submitted on December 13th, 2024, in Oakland, California, awaits approval from a U.S. district judge.
The long-standing lawsuit alleged that Apple had activated Siri without users’ knowledge “for over a decade.” It further indicated that Apple continued to record conversations and share specific keywords with advertisers to promote products and services without the user’s consent.
Although Apple has consistently marketed itself as a leader in consumer privacy protection, many users have long suspected that their devices are actively listening after receiving targeted ads on social media following discussions about particular topics or products.
Two individuals involved in the lawsuit recalled instances where merely mentioning Air Jordan shoes led to increased ads for the shoes on their iPhones. Another user noted that after discussing a certain surgical procedure with their doctor, they began to receive advertisements related to that treatment.
These allegations contradict Apple CEO Tim Cook’s assertion that the right to privacy is a “fundamental human right.”
If the settlement is approved by the district judge, millions of Apple users who owned devices from September 17th, 2014, onward could file claims, potentially receiving up to $20 per device depending on the number of claims submitted, as indicated in court documents.
Apple has reiterated that it does not concede any wrongdoing in the ongoing settlement process, with legal representatives set to evaluate the terms during a hearing on February 14th . Furthermore, the $95 million settlement represents only a fraction of the $705 billion revenue Apple has accrued since the September 2014 cutoff.
Lawyers for the consumers involved in the lawsuit estimate that if the case were to go to trial, Apple might have faced liabilities amounting to approximately $1.5 billion.
It is noteworthy that the acronym for SIRI stands for “Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface.”
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