Apple Has Agreed To Pay A $95 Million Settlement In A Class-Action Lawsuit Over Siri Eavesdropping On Apple Users
Forbes - Apple users could soon be eligible for a cash payout after the iPhone maker agreed to pay $95 million to settle a class action case including alleged Siri eavesdropping.
A preliminary settlement, filed Dec. 13, 2024 in Oakland, California is now awaiting approval by a U.S. district judge, Reuters reports.
The lawsuit alleges Apple was infringing privacy by capturing Siri conversations when the voice assistant had been activated accidentally and sharing this information with advertisers. It dates back to 2019, when U.K. newspaper The Guardian reported that Apple employed contractors to listen to Siri recordings of private conversations including medical appointments, sexual encounters and drug deals.
Apple got into hot water at the time because although the iPhone maker did say recordings from Siri could be listened to, it did not explicitly state that there was human oversight of the voice assistant. The new Siri lawsuit alleges that Apple didn’t inform people they were regularly being recorded without consent.
Over Christmas I was in a conversation about the new weed dispensaries in Bowling Green, Ohio. The conversation wasn't even finished before I scrolled to a targeted ad on Twitter trying to sell me weed. Or a smokable weed-ish product. I'm still getting the ad today.
Pretty insane deal really. There was a time I was spending $20 for a gram of "chronic". And I probably waited an hour in a public parking lot for it. And it was probably 0.8 at best. We were risking arrest just to get ripped off. $40 for 14 g's legally delivered to your doorstep is almost too good to be true. But I guess we'll never know. I won't give them the satisfaction of clicking to find out.
Seems a little crazy that we're just now getting around to this lawsuit. It used to be when you'd get a targeted ad like that you'd exclaim, "Holy shit, I just got a weed ad on my phone after we talked about weed! And I didn't type it in my phone anywhere!"
But I don't even bother bringing it up it anymore. Everybody knows our phones listen to everything we say. For the most part people just quit caring. Personally I find it more convenient than anything. Now that I'm no longer buying drugs on a frequent basis, I don't have anything to hide. Kinda seems funny that Apple is finally getting around to paying a "big settlement" now that everybody has pretty much given up fighting it.
The settlement itself seems like more of a fuck you from Apple than anything. Apple has over $60 billion in cash on hand alone. Taking $95 million away from them is almost doing them a favor. For anybody who feels they were negatively affected by this, $20 per device (max 5 devices) isn't going to make them feel better. I certainly can't see myself going through the necessary steps to opt into this class-action lawsuit. Just for Apple to inevitably come back and tell me I only get a portion of the $60 my family was counting on.
CNET - Payments per device are to be capped at $20, though depending on how many people opt in to the settlement, claimants could receive less than that. Each individual can only claim payments for up to five devices.
At this stage, it's unclear when payments will be disbursed and how claimants will go about opting in. The settlement terms still need to be approved by a federal judge, with a hearing on the matter now scheduled for Feb. 14.
Despite Apple knowing full well exactly how many Apple products each and every one of us have to our name, I'm sure you'll need to provide multiple proofs of iPad along with an original copy of your birth certificate. Perhaps a set of fingerprints as well. Which again, they've probably already collected from us through our touch screen phones.
If the lawyers are only able to get $95M out of Apple, I'd rather them give out $1,000 to 95,000 people than try to appease everybody. Either do a lottery, make it first come first serve, or hold some sort of competition. If I were Apple I would text everyone with an iPhone a link that takes them to Flappy Bird.
The people who put up the 95,000 best Flappy Bird scores in their first attempt win $1,000. Give everyone a chance at the money, and make it so the people who get paid out actually get something worth while. I'll take a chance at $1,000 over a guaranteed $20 any day.
Despite agreeing to the settlement, Apple still hasn't admitted to spying on us. This whole thing is very stupid. This small amount of money isn't going to affect Apple. It's not going to make people any more or less annoyed by them listening to everything we say. The only people affected by this in any way whatsoever are the lawyers getting paid for their time. Maybe this is a stepping stone to something bigger, but as of now, all this really amounts to is some lawyers in California getting paid. Congratulations lawyers. Keep up the work.