Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging that its Siri voice assistant eavesdropped on private conversations. The settlement, filed on December 13, 2024, in Oakland, California, is now awaiting approval by a U.S. district judge. The lawsuit claims that Apple infringed on user privacy by capturing Siri conversations when the voice assistant was activated accidentally.
It further alleges that this information was shared with advertisers, leading to targeted ads based on the content of these private conversations. To be eligible for the payout, you must have owned an Apple Siri-enabled device between September 17, 2014, and December 31, 2024, and be based in the U.S. You will need to swear under oath that you experienced Siri activating unintentionally and had private conversations recorded by the voice assistant. Apple has proposed a decision date of February 14, 2025, in the Californian court.
A website to confirm eligibility will be set up within 45 days, and you have until May 15, 2025, to file your claim.
Apple settles Siri privacy lawsuit
Apple will pay out $20 per device to Siri users, with a maximum of five devices per person, or $100 total.
The settlement payment could be higher depending on the number of claims submitted and approved. Some of the $95 million settlement will go to the legal teams, which could take 30% of the fee plus expenses, totaling just under $30 million. In an official statement, Apple firmly denied the accusations, stating, “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 emphasized that they settled this case to avoid additional litigation and move past concerns addressed in 2019. The company continually asserts that Siri data is used solely to improve Siri, and they are constantly developing technologies to make Siri even more private. While Apple hasn’t admitted any wrongdoing in the Siri eavesdropping case, and there is no concrete proof that the company passed recordings to advertisers, the settlement highlights the growing concerns over consumer privacy in the digital age.
