Got an Apple device? THESE users may be eligible for payout in Rs 814 crore class action lawsuit, check eligibility

Apple has agreed to pay USD 95 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit that accused the company’s virtual assistant, Siri, of recording users’ conversations without their consent. As part of the proposed settlement, Apple will provide compensation to owners of Siri-enabled devices, with payments starting at a minimum of USD 20 each.

While settling the lawsuit, Apple has denied any wrongdoing. The agreement allows the company to avoid the uncertainties associated with a trial and the risk of incurring significant legal costs. If the lawsuit had gone to trial and Apple had lost, the company could have faced damages valued to USD 1.5 billion.

What is the allegation?

In 2019, The Guardian reported that a whistleblower from Apple claimed that contractors employed by the company had overheard private conversations of users during quality assurance tests for Siri. According to the allegations, these recordings included discussions of sensitive medical information and other personal matters, which were captured by Siri due to accidental activations.

Among the recordings, some were said to have captured intimate moments, including couples engaging in sexual activity. Contractors reportedly listened to as many as 1,000 recordings each day.

The whistleblower also claimed that these private conversations were likely recorded unintentionally, as everyday sounds, such as the “sound of a zip,” could be misinterpreted by Siri as the wake word, leading to accidental activation.

In light of these allegations, two plaintiffs have filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple, accusing the company of eavesdropping and recording private conversations without users ever uttering the wake phrase “Hey, Siri.”

The lawsuit also alleged that Apple shared these recordings with advertisers, who analyzed the conversations for keywords to target users with advertisements. One plaintiff reported receiving ads for Air Jordan sneakers and Olive Garden after mentioning them during private discussions. Another plaintiff claimed they were targeted with ads for a specific surgical treatment after having a private conversation about it with a doctor.

Additionally, one recording reportedly involved a minor who did not have an Apple account, raising concerns about consent, as the minor would not have been able to authorize such recordings even if they had wanted to.

Apple’s response

In 2018, Apple responded to the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce in a letter, stating that only a “small portion” of Siri requests were evaluated for quality assurance and that these requests were not associated with users’ Apple IDs.

“iPhone doesn’t listen to consumers except to recognise the clear, unambiguous audio trigger ‘Hey, Siri’,” Apple stated, denying that it collects audio recordings of users without consent. “Apple doesn’t provide third-party app developers with access to Siri utterances. […] When Siri is listening to a user’s request, a visual indicator is presented to the user,” the letter read.

“Siri responses are analysed in secure facilities and all reviewers are under the obligation to adhere to Apple’s strict confidentiality requirements,” it added.

However, the company later issued a formal apology following The Guardian’s 2019 report, which revealed that third-party contractors had access to Siri recordings containing users’ private information.

“We realise we haven’t been fully living up to our high ideals, and for that we apologise,” Apple’s statement read.

Who is eligible for Apple’s payout?

Apple also announced several updates to Siri’s privacy policy, including allowing users to opt out of data collection for analytics, not retaining audio recordings of Siri interactions by default, using computer-generated transcripts to enhance Siri’s performance, limiting access to audio samples of Siri interactions to Apple employees only, and deleting any recordings that were inadvertently captured by triggering Siri.

In the US, class-action lawsuits are initiated by a small group of plaintiffs who represent a larger population in court. If the plaintiffs succeed in their case, the defendant is required to compensate all claimants.

To qualify for Apple’s USD 20 payout, claimants must be located in the US and should have owned a Siri-enabled Apple device between 2014 and 2019. They will reportedly need to provide sworn testimony that they experienced unintentional activation of Siri and that private conversations were recorded by the voice assistant.

According to court documents, claimants will be able to submit their claims through a website that is expected to be established within 45 days. The deadline for filing claims in the Apple-Siri eavesdropping class-action lawsuit is set for May 15, 2025.

While the total settlement fund amounts to USD 95 million, not all of this will be distributed to the claimants. Lawyers representing the case may request up to USD 30 million in legal fees, in addition to USD 1.1 million for expenses.

For context, Apple reported a net income of USD 93.74 billion in its most recent fiscal year. The settlement is still pending approval from Judge Jeffrey White of the US District Court for the Northern District of California, with Apple proposing February 14, 2025, as the date for the court’s decision.