Apple defends privacy practices amid $95m lawsuit over unauthorized Siri recordings
Apple details privacy measures for Siri following class action settlement over voice recording allegations.
Three days after agreeing to pay $95 million to settle allegations of unauthorized voice recordings, Apple released a comprehensive statement defending its privacy practices for Siri. The settlement, announced on January 3, 2025, addresses claims that Siri-enabled devices recorded private conversations without user consent between 2014 and 2024.
According to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the lawsuit originated from concerns about Siri's voice-triggered functionality introduced in 2014. The settlement administrator, Angeion Group, estimates a claim rate between 3-5% based on similar consumer data privacy settlements.
On January 8, 2025, Apple published a detailed technical explanation of its privacy architecture for Siri. According to the statement, the company implements on-device processing whenever possible, particularly for tasks such as reading unread messages or providing suggestions through widgets and Siri search.
The technical implementation involves specific privacy measures. According to Apple's statement, Siri searches and requests operate independently of Apple Accounts, utilizing a random identifier - a string of letters and numbers associated with individual devices - to process data. This approach differs from other digital assistants currently available in the market.
The court documents reveal that privacy concerns intensified following a 2019 whistleblower report. The report indicated that Apple contractors regularly reviewed Siri recordings for quality assurance, inadvertently accessing confidential medical information, business dealings, and private moments when Siri activated unintentionally.
The settlement terms include specific privacy enhancements. The company commits to permanently delete individual Siri audio recordings collected before October 2019, publish detailed information about the opt-in process for Siri improvement features, and provide clearer explanations about stored information from users participating in Siri improvements.
The technical architecture of Siri's privacy features includes Private Cloud Compute, which extends device-level privacy protections into cloud operations. This system processes user data without storing or making it accessible to Apple, strictly limiting data usage to fulfilling specific requests.
The settlement fund allocation reveals specific financial details. After deducting administrative costs of $5.97 million, attorney fees up to $28.5 million, and litigation expenses not exceeding $1.1 million, remaining funds will be distributed to eligible claimants. Individual compensation is capped at $20 per device, with users able to submit claims for up to five Siri-enabled devices.
The settlement class encompasses U.S. residents who owned or purchased Siri-enabled devices between September 17, 2014, and December 31, 2024. Multiple law firms represent the plaintiffs, including Lowey Dannenberg, P.C. and Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP, who have invested approximately $17.7 million in legal work.
Financial context places this settlement among other significant privacy-related resolutions. Recent comparable settlements include Facebook's $725 million privacy settlement, Oracle's $115 million data privacy settlement, and Google's $100 million privacy litigation resolution. The $95 million settlement represents approximately nine hours of profit for Apple, based on the company's $93.74 billion net income in its latest fiscal year.
The final approval hearing for the settlement is scheduled for February 14, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The settlement addresses specific device categories, including iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, MacBooks, iMacs, HomePods, iPod touches, and Apple TVs equipped with Siri functionality.