Apple has settled a $95 million class-action lawsuit that accused the company of using Siri recordings for targeted advertising without user consent. The lawsuit alleged that Apple shared information from accidental Siri recordings with third-party companies to market products. Apple has denied these claims, stating that Siri data is anonymized and not linked to specific users.
The company also clarified that Siri data is not sold and is only used to improve the personal assistant. In a statement, Apple said, “Siri has been engineered to protect user privacy from the beginning. Siri data has never been used to build marketing profiles and it has never been sold to anyone for any purpose.
Apple settled this case to avoid additional litigation so we can move forward from concerns about third-party grading that we already addressed in 2019.”
The lawsuit originated after contractors working for Apple disclosed that they overheard conversations from accidental Siri activations. At the time, Apple’s privacy terms did not explicitly state that human oversight was being used for Siri.
Siri lawsuit settlement details
Customers who filed the lawsuit asserted that they were “regularly recorded without consent” and would not have purchased their iPhones had they known about this Siri feature. As part of the settlement, Apple continues to deny any wrongdoing. The settlement has received preliminary approval from the court.
All current or former owners or purchasers of a Siri device in the United States, whose confidential or private communications were obtained by Apple between September 17, 2014, and December 31, 2024, are considered class members and may be eligible for a payment of up to $20. Lawyers will set up a settlement website, and eligible class members will be contacted. The exact payout amount might vary depending on the number of claims submitted and approved.
Throughout the lawsuit, Apple emphasized that it had denied the allegations that Siri recordings were used to target advertisements. For capable devices, the audio of a user’s requests is processed entirely on the device using the Apple Neural Engine unless users choose to share it with Apple. The iPhone maker also allows users to review and delete their Siri transcripts directly in Settings.
