Apple will pay $95 million to its customers to settle the lawsuit that accuses Siri of interception!
Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit that accuses the privacy-minded company of deploying its Siri virtual assistant to eavesdrop on people using iPhones and other trendy devices.
The proposed settlement filed Tuesday in an Oakland, Calif., federal court would resolve a 5-year-old lawsuit revolving around allegations that Apple secretly enabled Siri to record conversations through iPhones and other equipped devices. with the virtual assistant for more than a decade.
The alleged recordings occurred even when people did not ask to activate the virtual assistant with the trigger words, "Hey, Siri." Some of the recorded conversations were then shared with advertisers in an effort to sell their products to consumers who were most likely to be interested in the goods and services, the suit claimed.
Allegations of a snoopy Siri contradicted Apple's long-standing commitment to protecting the privacy of its customers, a crusade that CEO Tim Cook has often described as a fight to preserve "a basic human right."
Apple is not admitting any wrongdoing in the settlement, which has yet to be approved by US District Judge Jeffrey White. Attorneys 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 between September 17, 2014 and the end of last year could file claims. Each consumer can receive up to $20 per Siri-equipped device covered by the settlement, although the payment may be reduced or increased, depending on the volume of claims. Only 3% to 5% of eligible consumers are expected to file claims, according to estimates in court filings.
Eligible customers will be limited to seeking compensation on a maximum of five devices.
The settlement represents a fraction of the $705 billion in profits Apple has collected since September 2014. It's also a fraction of the roughly $1.5 billion that attorneys representing consumers had estimated Apple could be required to pay if the company were to found to have violated wiretapping and other privacy laws took the case to trial.
The lawyers who filed the suit can seek up to $29.6 million from the settlement fund to cover their fees and expenses, according to court documents.
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