If you owned a Siri-compatible device and had an accidental Siri activation between September 17, 2014 and December 31, 2024, you could be eligible for a payment from Apple as part of a class action lawsuit settlement.
Apple in January agreed to pay $95 million to settle a class action lawsuit involving Siri spying accusations, and a website to distribute the funds has now been set up and those eligible to submit a claim are starting to be informed via email.
Between now and July 2, 2025, U.S. Apple device owners can submit a claim if they had an accidental Siri activation on a Siri-enabled iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, HomePod, iPod touch, or Apple TV during the relevant period. Claims for up to five Siri devices can be submitted, as long as the claimant pledges that each device was part of an accidental Siri activation during a conversation that was meant to be confidential or private.
Settlement class members that submit a valid claim will receive a portion of the net settlement amount, which is capped at $20 per Siri device. The amount that's ultimately awarded could increase or decrease based on the total number of valid claims submitted.
Eligible Apple device owners will be receiving an email or postcard about the settlement, but those who feel they are eligible that did not receive a claim notice can still submit a claim form.
The original lawsuit dates back to 2019, and it was filed after a report indicated that some private conversations of Apple device owners were overheard by contractors evaluating Siri when Siri was accidentally activated. Apple was not secretive about the fact that some Siri recordings were analyzed by humans, but the company's privacy terms at the time did not explicitly state that there was human oversight of Siri, and that third-party contractors were being used.
The initial lawsuit was actually dismissed because there wasn't enough data about the Siri recordings that Apple allegedly collected, but it was refiled with a claim that Apple used Siri recordings for "targeted advertising," and it moved forward.
There is no evidence that Apple has ever provided Siri recordings or information from Siri recordings to advertisers. In a statement to MacRumors earlier this year, Apple confirmed that Siri data has never been used for marketing purposes.
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. We use Siri data to improve Siri, and we are constantly developing technologies to make Siri even more private.
Apple settled the lawsuit in order to avoid further litigation fees, and as part of the settlement, Apple denied "any and all alleged wrongdoing and liability."
Following the 2019 Siri scandal involving contractors listening to accidental Siri recordings, Apple temporarily suspended its Siri evaluation program, stopped using contractors, and implemented options that allow users to delete Siri recordings and block them from being listened to. In later updates, Apple moved some Siri processing on-device, limiting the data that is uploaded to Apple's servers.
After the claim period ends on July 2, there will be a final approval hearing on August 1. At some point after that, the funds will be distributed to Apple customers.
/https://forums.macrumors.com/attachments/2508886/)
