Apple agrees to $95 million payouts to settle lawsuit alleging Siri recorded private conversations
Despite not admitting to having done anything wrong, Apple has agreed $95 million in settlement payouts for “unintentional” Siri activations that may have resulted in private conversations being recorded.
The payment agreement comes after years of legal back and forth following reports from users that Siri was “spying” on them after being activated unbidden. The proposed class action lawsuit has its roots in complaints dating back to 2014.
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Users complained that they were delivered ads that were for products they had only discussed in private conversations without having manually activated Siri. Examples include “private discussions between doctors and patients, business deals, seemingly criminal dealings, sexual encounters, and so on”.
There is something of a discrepancy between Apple’s unwillingness to admit to wrongdoing while simultaneously being willing to pay what appears to be a very large sum of money to make the issue go away. But, as Reuters points out, $95 million is what Apple makes in profit in around nine hours.
Individual payouts are not very large, either. Anyone who feels they may have been affected is able to make claims for up to five devices, each of which could earn them $20.
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