Apple has agreed to pay US$95 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the company of deploying its virtual assistant Siri to eavesdrop on people using its iPhone and other devices.
The proposed settlement filed on Tuesday in an Oakland, California, federal court would resolve a five-year-old lawsuit revolving around allegations that Apple surreptitiously activated Siri to record conversations through iPhones and other devices equipped with the virtual assistant for more than a decade.
The alleged recordings occurred even when people did not seek to activate the virtual assistant with the trigger words, “Hey, Siri.”
Photo: AFP
Some of the recorded conversations were shared with advertisers in an attempt to sell their products to consumers more likely to be interested in the goods and services, the lawsuit said.
The allegations contradicted Apple’s promises to protect the privacy of its customers — which Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook has often framed as a fight to preserve “a fundamental human right.”
Apple is not acknowledging any wrongdoing in the settlement, which must be approved by US District Judge Jeffrey White.
Lawyers in the case have proposed scheduling a Feb. 14 court hearing in Oakland to review the terms.
If the settlement is approved, tens of millions of consumers who owned iPhones and other Apple devices from Sept. 17, 2014, through the end of last year could file claims. Each consumer could receive up to US$20 per Siri-equipped device covered by the settlement, although the payment could be reduced or increased, depending on the volume of claims.
Only 3 to 5 percent of eligible consumers are expected to file claims, estimates in court documents said.
Eligible consumers would be limited to seeking compensation on a maximum of five devices.
The settlement represents a sliver of the US$705 billion in profit that Apple has pocketed since September 2014. It is also a fraction of the roughly US$1.5 billion that the lawyers representing consumers had estimated Apple could been required to pay if the company had been found of violating wiretapping and other privacy laws had the case gone to a trial.
The attorneys who filed the lawsuit might seek up to US$29.6 million from the settlement fund to cover their fees and other expenses, court documents showed.
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