Apple Siri class action lawsuit: Payout eligibility, amount and all you need to know amid $95 million settlement

Apple recently agreed to a $95 million class action lawsuit settlement against Apple Siri after five years of litigation and five months of discussions. The lawsuit against the tech company alleged that Siri had reportedly breached customers' privacy. The gadgets named in the litigation include iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, MacBooks, iMacs, iPod Touches, HomePods, and Apple TVs with Siri.

The lawsuit took place after a Cupertino whistleblower claimed in 2019 that Apple Siri was allegedly listening in on audio conversations without the required "Hey Siri" spoken order or manually activating the voice assistant. As per a report by The Register dated January 2, 2024, the court documents stated that recording in California requires both parties' consent.

As per the outlet, the company opened up about Apple Siri at the time and said:

"A small portion of Siri requests are analysed to improve Siri and dictation... User requests are not associated with the user’s Apple ID. Siri responses are analysed in secure facilities and all reviewers are under the obligation to adhere to Apple’s strict confidentiality requirements."

According to the class action lawsuit, an unauthorized Siri activation on these devices resulted in Apple obtaining private or confidential messages and sharing them with third parties. On December 31, 2024, the preliminary settlement was submitted to the federal court in Oakland, California.

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Apple Siri allegedly recorded conversations without activation

Apple Siri is now facing allegations (Image via Getty Images)

The command "Hey Siri" is usually used to activate Siri, but it has been suggested that the digital assistant may accidentally be activated and start recording without this instruction, per The Register's report. Due to this problem, the plaintiffs claimed that Apple was breaking both privacy and consumer protection laws.

According to the lawsuit, Apple accidentally enabled Apple Siri, recording brief excerpts of private conversations that were later allegedly shared with advertising and human reviewers. However, the person should have certain eligibility to make these allegations.

They must be current Siri Device owners or buyers who live in the US and its territories. Additionally, their private or confidential communications were acquired by Apple and/or disclosed to third parties.

Furthermore, some plaintiffs allegedly claimed that the information gleaned from their discussions was again utilized to target advertisements without their agreement. One user reported that after talking to their doctor about a certain drug, they started receiving advertisements for it, according to The Register.

Based on the quantity of Siri devices claimed, a pro-rata payment of up to $20 per device will be given to Settlement Class Members who submit legitimate claims. Moreover, the plaintiffs' counsel will request that the court grant up to 30% of the Settlement Fund for legal fees and up to $1.1 million for litigation costs.

According to the court document, notification will be provided to all Siri Device owners and buyers, and the estimated Settlement Class size is anticipated to be "substantial." The tech giant has refuted all of the lawsuit's accusations against Apple Siri and denied any wrongdoing or illegal activity.

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Meanwhile, following the incident, Apple issued an apology and changed how it rated customer interactions with the voice assistant. This happened after The Guardian alleged on July 26, 2019, that Apple workers often overheard parts of private conversations while examining Siri recordings for quality control.

Furthermore, according to BBC's August 28, 2019 report, the company stated at the time:

"As a result of our review, we realize we haven't been fully living up to our high ideals, and for that we apologize.”

Additionally, the allegations came one year after Tim Cook used the term "Privacy" to promote Apple as a privacy-conscious company in 2018. At that time, after being questioned about privacy in a letter from Congress, Cook made it clear that Apple doesn't record user audio without permission.

Nevertheless, the company didn't comment on the current situation at the time of publication.