Apple Will Pay Class Action Suitors $95 Million to End Privacy Invasion Lawsuits

 

Apple $AAPL consented to pay $95 million in cash to end a collective lawsuit alleging that Apple's voice-activated Siri assistant invaded users' privacy.

 

The preliminary settlement was submitted on Tuesday (Dec. 31) to a federal court in Oakland, California, pending approval by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White.

 

The plaintiffs claimed that Apple regularly recorded their private dialogues through Siri and passed on information in the dialogue to advertisers. For example, oral expressions of footwear and restaurants triggered ads for such products.

 

Therefore, the group sued Apple for violating user privacy by making unauthorized recordings through the “Hey Siri” feature. The group includes tens of millions of people. Members are entitled to a settlement of up to $20 per Siri-enabled device.

 

Apple denied misconduct while agreeing to the settlement. The $95 million equals nine hours of profit for Apple, which had a net income of $93.74 billion last fiscal year.

 

A similar lawsuit filed on behalf of users of Google's $GOOGL voice assistant is pending in federal court in California.