“Far from requiring a ‘clear, unambiguous trigger’ as Apple claimed … Siri can be activated by nearly anything, including ‘[t]he sound of a zip’ or an individual raising their arms and speaking,” the lawsuit said. “Once activated, Siri records everything within range of the Siri Devices’ microphone and sends it to Apple’s servers.”
Apple is expected to pay $95 million to settle claims that Siri eavesdropped on iPhone and Apple Watch owners.
The class-action lawsuit alleged that Apple used its voice-activated assistant, Siri, to record consumers’ conversations.
According to the BBC, the terms of the proposed settlement permit Apple to deny any and all wrongdoing, including the lawsuit’s claims that it “recorded, disclosed to third parties, or failed to delete, conversations recorded as the result of a Siri activation.”
Attorneys for the class note that, while Apple contractors to review Siri recordings, it never appears to have made a good-faith effort to rectify widespread problems, including accidental activations.
“Apple knows that unauthorized recordings are common and as such tasks its human reviewers with, among other things, identifying whether Siri was deliberately activated or not,” said the lawsuit, which was filed in 2019. “Despite this, Apple has not informed consumers they are being regularly recorded without consent.”
“Many … consumers would not have bought their Siri devices if they had known Apple was recording their conversations without consent,” it said.
One of the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit recounted how they had conversations with their doctor about a “brand name surgical treatment.” Shortly afterward, they began receiving targeted advertisements for the same treatment. Another of the plaintiffs said that discussions about Air Jordan sneakers, Pit Viper sunglasses, and Olive Garden restaurants caused them to begin receiving advertisements for all three products.
The lawsuit specifically alleged that, in many cases, Siri would begin collecting consumer information in the absence of a trigger word or trigger phrase, like “Hey, Siri.”
“Far from requiring a ‘clear, unambiguous trigger’ as Apple claimed … Siri can be activated by nearly anything, including ‘[t]he sound of a zip’ or an individual raising their arms and speaking,” the lawsuit said. “Once activated, Siri records everything within range of the Siri Devices’ microphone and sends it to Apple’s servers.”
“As a result,” the lawsuit alleged, “the regularity of triggers on Siri devices such as the Apple watch is ‘incredibly high.’ Despite this, Apple has no system in place to deal with accidental recordings.”
Settlement documents indicate that, if the agreement is approved, each class member could be paid up to $20 for each Siri-enabled device owned between 2014 and 2019.
The BBC notes that the $95 million settlement is equivalent to “about nine hours of profit for Apple, whose net income was $93.74 billion in its latest fiscal year.”
Sources
Apple must face Siri voice assistant privacy lawsuit -U.S. judge
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