Apple to Pay Siri Users $20 Per Device in Settlement Over Accidental Siri Privacy Violations

Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a proposed class action lawsuit that accused the iPhone maker of invading users' privacy using its voice-activated Siri assistant.

The development was first reported by Reuters.

The settlement applies to U.S.-based individuals current or former owners or purchasers of a Siri-enabled device who had their confidential voice communications with the assistant "obtained by Apple and/or were shared with third-parties as a result of an unintended Siri activation" between September 17, 2014, and December 31, 2024.

Eligible individuals can submit claims for up to five Siri devices – iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, MacBook, iMac, HomePod, iPod touch, or Apple TV – on which they claim to have experienced an accidental Siri activation during a conversation intended to be confidential or private. Class members who submit valid claims can receive $20 per device.

The lawsuit was brought against Apple following a 2019 report from The Guardian that disclosed that third-party contractors were listening in on private conversations of its users issuing voice commands to Siri as part of its efforts to improve the quality of its product.

An amended complaint filed in September 2021 alleged that the private conversations recorded by Apple because of accidental activations were also disclosed to third-party advertisers.

Cupertino has disputed the claims, arguing that "there are no facts, much less plausible facts, that tie Plaintiffs' receipt of targeted ads to their speculation that Siri must have been listening to their conversations, and Apple must have used Siri to facilitate targeted ads by third-parties."

Following the revelations, Apple apologized for not "fully living up to our high ideals" and subsequently introduced an opt-in to help Siri improve by learning from the audio samples of their requests. It also said it will remove any recording that's determined to be an inadvertent trigger of Siri.

It has since rolled out new settings across its software portfolio to allow users to disable the collection of analytics information for improving Siri and dictation, as well as delete all history. Apple has denied any wrongdoing in the settlement filing.

Google, which has also faced accusations with its voice assistant back in 2019, is battling a similar lawsuit in the U.S. District Court.

Update

Apple has reiterated that Siri‌-related data has never been used to build marketing profiles, and that it has not been made available for advertising or sold to third-parties. It also pointed out the on-device processing of Siri requests whenever possible, such as reading unread messages.

"Although Apple attempts to do as much as possible on device, certain features require real-time input from Apple servers," the company said in a statement released on January 8, 2025. "And when that’s the case, Siri uses as little data as possible to deliver an accurate result."

It further said Siri searches and results are not linked to users' Apple Accounts, instead relying on a random identifier to process them.

"Apple does not retain audio recordings of Siri interactions unless users explicitly opt in to help improve Siri, and even then, the recordings are used solely for that purpose," it added. "Users can easily opt out at any time."