Apple to pay $95 million to settle claims that Siri recorded private conversations

What just happened? Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a five-year-old lawsuit accusing its digital assistant Siri of eavesdropping on people's private conversations on iPhones and other devices. Despite the massive payout, the company denies any wrongdoing and insists that it remains committed to user privacy.

The proposed settlement was filed this week in a federal court in Oakland, California, and could finally resolve the long-standing lawsuit over allegations Apple used Siri to eavesdrop on users' private conversations since 2014. The company is also alleged to have recorded those conversations even when the trigger words, "Hey Siri," were not used. The proposal now requires Judge Jeffrey S. White's approval to be finalized.

If the settlement is approved, the amount will be divided among tens of millions of Apple customers who owned iPhones and other Apple devices from September 17, 2014, through the end of 2024. According to Reuters, each class member could receive around $20 per Siri-equipped device they owned during this time, limited to five devices per user. The exact amount would depend on the total number of claims.

According to the plaintiffs, Apple shared the data from these recordings with advertisers for targeted advertising based on what they were talking about. They want Cupertino to delete all Siri audio recordings it collected before October 2019 and publish a detailed support page explaining how it plans to handle future recordings if users opt into the "Improve Siri" program.

It is worth noting that despite the multi-million dollar settlement, Apple is denying all allegations and insisting that it never compromised user privacy. In a statement filed with the court, the company said that it has always "denied and continues to deny any and all alleged wrongdoing and liability." It's unclear if the company has agreed to the plaintiffs' other demands.

Siri originally debuted as a standalone virtual assistant with the iPhone 4S in 2011, but Apple introduced the "Hey Siri" feature in 2014, allowing users to activate it via voice command on iPhones. The software has since been added to a range of Apple products, including iPads, HomePods, Mac computers, Apple Watches, and Apple TVs.