It’s true that Siri spy on users through Apple electronic devices? There will probably never be a certain answer to this question, given that the Cupertino giant, which for its part has always returned the accusations to the sender, has decided to cut it short by preparing a compensation plan for its users with the clear objective to avoid ending up in court and facing a long and certainly complicated trial.
The company reached an out-of-court settlement with the law firm that had sued it accusing it of violation of privacyand said it was willing to pay 95 million dollars in compensation, to be divided among those who took part in the class action. Apple ended up at the center of controversy in July 2019, when the complaint was filed after an investigation conducted by the Guardian. The class action refers overall to the period between 17 September 2014, when “Hey Siri” was launched with iOS 8, until 31 December 2024.
The private conversations of users resident in the United States of America were recorded and subsequently shared with third parties to be used with the aim of creating personalized advertising advertisements. From two people who found themselves in such a situation, the number grew, up to the point of collective legal action: the class action was triggered by a report carried out in 2019 which proved that Apple’s external collaborators in charge of quality control actually regularly listened to private conversations between users, even those containing sensitive information. To prove the connection between the two things, this acquired data was followed by targeted advertisements.
At that point Siri and the Cupertino giant ended up at the center of controversy, and Apple interrupted the improvement program through external collaborators, firing over 300 of them and fueling suspicions. It was then discovered that Siri could be activated unintentionally and for this reason recorded private content such as medical information, sexual encounters or commercial agreements.
The bitten apple company played it down, stating that only a small part of the recordings were shared with third parties anonymously, with the aim of improving the performance of thevirtual assistant. Subsequently, changes were implemented to ensure the protection of user privacy.
We now await February 14, when the judge will decide whether to approve the 95 million dollar compensation plan: a figure, equal to just 20 dollars per device for a maximum of 5 per person, to be divided among the participants in the class action who under oath they will declare that they accidentally activated Siri during a private conversation using any of the devices
produced by the Cupertino giant, therefore MacBook, iMac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Home Pod or iPod Touch. If the agreement does not go through, there would be a risk of fines of up to 1.5 billion dollars.