Apple agrees to distribute US$95 million to users who say Siri spied on them

Apple has agreed pay 95 million dollars to settle a lawsuit that accused the privacy-conscious company of use your virtual assistant Siri to spy on people using their iPhone phones and other fashion devices.

The proposed settlement filed Tuesday in federal court in Oakland, California, ends a 5 year old lawsuit that revolves around the Allegations that Apple surreptitiously activated Siri to record conversations through iPhones and other devices equipped with the virtual assistant for more than a decade.

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The alleged recordings They occurred even when people were not looking to activate the virtual assistant with the wake words, “Hey, Siri.”. Some of the Recorded conversations were then shared with advertisers in an attempt to sell its products to consumers more likely to be interested in the goods and services, the lawsuit stated.

The allegations about a nosy Siri contradicted Apple’s long-standing commitment to protecting its customers’ privacy, a crusade that CEO Tim Cook has often noted is a fight to preserve “a fundamental human right.”

Apple is not acknowledging any wrongdoing in the settlement which must still be approved by US District Judge Jeffrey White. Attorneys in the case have proposed scheduling a hearing on Feb. 14 in Oakland court to review the terms.

If the deal is approved, tens of millions of consumers who owned iPhones and other Apple devices from September 17, 2014 until the end of last year could file a claim. Every consumer You could receive up to $20 per Siri-equipped device covered by the settlement, although the payment could be reduced or increased, depending on the volume of claims. 3% to 5% of eligible consumers are expected to file claims, according to estimates in court documents.

Eligible consumers will be limited to seeking compensation in a maximum of five devices, live in the US and declare under oath that they accidentally activated Siri during a private conversation.

The agreement represents a fraction of the $705 billion in profits that Apple has made since September 2014. It’s also a fraction of the roughly $1.5 billion that lawyers representing consumers had estimated Apple could have been forced to pay if the company had been found to have violated wiretap laws and other privacy laws if the case had come to trial.

The attorneys who filed the lawsuit can request up to $29.6 million from the settlement fund to cover their fees and other expenses, according to court documents.