If you’re a fan of Apple’s popular voice assistant Siri then you might want to read on further. The company has agreed to pay a massive $95M settlement after Siri was found guilty of a massive privacy breach.five
The settlement was first shared by Bloomberg who says Siri spied on users having interactions and even captured the conversations without anyone knowing. As a result, the incident could see the Cupertino firm pay a wide array of people owning Apple products that are based in America.
Up to 5 devices with Siri enabled into them were brought into perspective and payments could go up to $20 for each device featuring the voice assistant. Remember, we’re still waiting on the final judgment that must be approved by the judge before users can celebrate.
The payments would apply to those in America who own iPhones, iPads, iMacs, the Apple Watch, MacBook, iPod Touch, Apple TV, or HomePod featuring Siri. However, the timeframe outlined is September 17th, 2014 to December 31st, 2024. That’s not the only criterion in discussion.
The users must undergo an oath-taking process where they swear that they only activated their voice assistant by error while having a chat that was supposed to be private. As far as individual payments are concerned, the matter will totally depend on the number of users coming forward to make claims. If you do plan on applying, it’s a little less than $20, which is the maximum cap.
The class action case rolled out against the iPhone maker comes after a report from 2019 that was published by the Guardian shared how Apple’s third-party contractors keep on listening to private chats featuring sensitive data like couples involved in intimacy, those carrying out drug deals, and even discussions about private medical data.
During this whole time. Siri was busy trying to better voice quality but instead of getting activated deliberately by using certain keywords, it would get active without any trigger. Even simple sounds or terms like zippers would get Siri alert, a whistleblower shared.
Apple has sprung into action after the news and says that not many people were impacted by the ordeal. It also shed light on how small recordings were transferred to contractors and they are very apologetic for that breach.
Apple also published a public apology admitting its mistake while vowing to end the practice of keeping audio recordings. One of the plaintiffs in this legal case who happened to be a minor shared how their device recorded their chats on several instances. This includes those situations where not even a single word was uttered.
Now if you’re thinking Apple was the only tech giant accused of such practice, well, think again. Both Google and Amazon were also highlighted for using contractors who can eavesdrop on recorded chats. This entails those captured by error while another similar one was rolled in Google’s direction that’s still in pending mode.
Image: DIW-Aigen
Read next: Browser Market Share 2024: Google Chrome Continues To Dominate Leaving All Others Far Behind
The settlement was first shared by Bloomberg who says Siri spied on users having interactions and even captured the conversations without anyone knowing. As a result, the incident could see the Cupertino firm pay a wide array of people owning Apple products that are based in America.
Up to 5 devices with Siri enabled into them were brought into perspective and payments could go up to $20 for each device featuring the voice assistant. Remember, we’re still waiting on the final judgment that must be approved by the judge before users can celebrate.
The payments would apply to those in America who own iPhones, iPads, iMacs, the Apple Watch, MacBook, iPod Touch, Apple TV, or HomePod featuring Siri. However, the timeframe outlined is September 17th, 2014 to December 31st, 2024. That’s not the only criterion in discussion.
The users must undergo an oath-taking process where they swear that they only activated their voice assistant by error while having a chat that was supposed to be private. As far as individual payments are concerned, the matter will totally depend on the number of users coming forward to make claims. If you do plan on applying, it’s a little less than $20, which is the maximum cap.
The class action case rolled out against the iPhone maker comes after a report from 2019 that was published by the Guardian shared how Apple’s third-party contractors keep on listening to private chats featuring sensitive data like couples involved in intimacy, those carrying out drug deals, and even discussions about private medical data.
During this whole time. Siri was busy trying to better voice quality but instead of getting activated deliberately by using certain keywords, it would get active without any trigger. Even simple sounds or terms like zippers would get Siri alert, a whistleblower shared.
Apple has sprung into action after the news and says that not many people were impacted by the ordeal. It also shed light on how small recordings were transferred to contractors and they are very apologetic for that breach.
Apple also published a public apology admitting its mistake while vowing to end the practice of keeping audio recordings. One of the plaintiffs in this legal case who happened to be a minor shared how their device recorded their chats on several instances. This includes those situations where not even a single word was uttered.
Now if you’re thinking Apple was the only tech giant accused of such practice, well, think again. Both Google and Amazon were also highlighted for using contractors who can eavesdrop on recorded chats. This entails those captured by error while another similar one was rolled in Google’s direction that’s still in pending mode.
Read next: Browser Market Share 2024: Google Chrome Continues To Dominate Leaving All Others Far Behind
