You might have heard of people believing that phones are always listening to your conversations, and in this case, it’s kind of correct (ish).
Ever spoke to a friend about a product, only for it to come up on your phone that very same day, in the form of an advert?
That’s what many people in the US have experienced. Apple has started to hand out money to its customers in a whopping $95 million (£68.9 million) class action lawsuit against the tech firm, after Siri allegedly violated users' privacy via listening in.
According to those who complained, they unintentionally activated Siri, leading to their conversations to be overheard by the device, and its contents sold to third parties and advertisers to target them with ads.
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Tens of millions of people might have been impacted, with $20 (£14) thought to be offered for each Apple device that uses its Siri assistant software.
However, if you think your Apple watch, iPad, iPhone or any other Apple device has done the same thing to you, you’ll need to make sure you qualify to file a complaint.
As reported by Forbes, you could claim if you owned an Apple Siri-enabled device between 17 September 2014, and 31 December 2024.
But you’d also need to be US-based and also swear under oath that you experienced Siri activating without your input, and it also recorded your private conversations.
According to the outlet, Apple initially proposed a date of 14 February in the Californian court for it all to be laid out, but went on to settle and pay out those impacted.
It also shared it would set up a website within 45 days to confirm the details and that complainants have until 15 May 2025, to file against the company.
The suit was brought against the company after two people from California said their private conversations of Air Jordan trainers and Olive Garden restaurants ended up with them being shown targeted advertisements on their devices, per the Independent.
“Siri has been engineered to protect user privacy from the beginning,” a spokesperson for Apple told Nexstar, with the company also telling Forbes: “Siri data has never been used to build marketing profiles and it has never been sold to anyone for any purpose.”
Allegedly, Apple settled the case ‘so we can move forward from concerns about third-party grading that we already addressed in 2019’, per the Apple spokesperson.
“We use Siri data to improve Siri, and we are constantly developing technologies to make Siri even more private.”
Tyla has reached out to Apple for comment.
Topics: Apple, iPhone, Money, US News, Technology
Britt Jones