Hey Siri, Stop Accidentally Recording Me And Unintentionally Selling The Data You Mine … Or Else!

Apple Plans To Settle By Offering $20 Per Siri Enabled Device You Own … Kind Of, Maybe

You and your friends aren’t crazy for wondering why suspiciously targeted ads show up on your phones; your Siri enabled devices may well have recorded conversations you had no idea it did, the contents of which were then sold to third parties.  Apple has admitted that if your device thinks it heard “Hey Siri”, it could well accidentally record whatever it was you were talking about immediately after it was triggered.  Those conversations were data mined and the results accidentally sold to third parties so that they could offer you advertisements targeted specifically to what you were talking about.

This behaviour was proven to occur and triggered a lawsuit against Apple, which they fought for five years.  To this day Apple will not admit to wrongdoing, however they have now changed their tactics.  They are seeking to settle the legal actions against them with an out of court settlement which will see them pay $20 per Siri enabled device, up to five devices per user, for those who purchased one of these products between September 17, 2014, and December 31, 2024.  That includes any Apple product with Siri, up to and including Apple TV and iPods.

There is a twist though, which could see the estimated $95 million settlement reduced significantly.  Apple may require you to prove that the recorded conversations they accidentally harvested occurred because of the unintentional activation of Siri.   If you did intentionally trigger Siri, the terms of use you agreed to gives Apple the right to record everything you say and then sell the data from that recording to third parties.  How exactly someone is supposed to prove a random conversation from sometime in the past 10 years was recorded accidentally we leave to you to figure out.

This settlement will save Apple a bundle, if they lost the legal battle they would be on the hook for up to $1.5 billion in fines.  Android users shouldn’t feel too smug, Google is currently in court for the exact same behaviour.