CALIFORNIA, 3 JAN

Apple has agreed to pay USD 95M to settle a lawsuit accusing the company of deploying its virtual assistant Siri to eavesdrop on people using its iPhone and other devices.

The proposed settlement filed on Tuesday in an Oakland, California, federal court would resolve a five-year-old lawsuit alleging that Apple surreptitiously activated Siri to record conversations through iPhones and other devices equipped with the virtual assistant for more than a decade.

The alleged recordings occurred even when people did not seek to activate the virtual assistant with the trigger words, “Hey, Siri." Some of the recorded conversations were then shared with advertisers in an attempt to sell their products to consumers more likely to be interested in the goods and services, the lawsuit asserted.

The allegations contradicted Apple's long-running commitment to protect the privacy of its customers – a crusade that CEO Tim Cook has often framed as a fight to preserve “a fundamental human right”.

Apple is not acknowledging any wrongdoing in the settlement, which still must be approved by US District Judge Jeffrey White. Lawyers in the case have proposed scheduling a 14 February court hearing in Oakland to review the terms.

If the settlement is approved, crores of consumers who owned iPhones and other Apple devices from 17 September, 2014, through the end of last year could file claims. Each consumer could receive up to USD 20 per Siri-equipped device covered by the settlement, although the payment could be reduced or increased, depending on the volume of claims. —PTI