By John Q. Hosedrinker 
Apple will pay $95 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging its Siri assistant illegally recorded and shared users’ private conversations with third parties, such as advertisers. The settlement, covering a class period from September 2014 to December 2024, includes payouts of up to $20 per Siri-enabled device. While Apple denies wrongdoing, the plaintiffs claim unintentional Siri activations led to the unauthorized recording and targeted advertising. A similar lawsuit against Google is currently pending.
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Apple recently agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that Siri, its virtual assistant, violated users’ privacy by collecting and using their conversations for targeted advertising. This settlement follows claims from several plaintiffs who experienced targeted advertisements for products they’d only discussed with others, and not actively searched for online. One plaintiff, for example, reported receiving ads for Air Jordan sneakers and Olive Garden restaurants after mentioning them in conversation. Another received ads for a specific surgical procedure after a private discussion about it with their doctor.
This raises significant questions about the extent to which voice assistants like Siri actually listen to our conversations, even when the wake word isn’t invoked. While Apple denies any wrongdoing in this settlement, the sheer volume of anecdotes suggesting a link between private conversations and subsequent targeted advertising is hard to ignore. These instances suggest a sophisticated system of data collection and analysis that goes beyond simply tracking our online searches and purchases.
One narrative highlights a situation where a son received targeted perfume ads after his mother discussed needing to replace her confiscated perfume at the airport. The son discovered that his mother’s geolocation data, combined with her online searches and his own social media presence, allowed advertisers to connect the dots and target him with relevant ads. This shows how seemingly innocuous pieces of data, when combined, can create highly personalized user profiles.
But the situation extends beyond simply what our devices might be listening to. Another account describes a man who received targeted ads related to coming out as gay, even though he hadn’t publicly disclosed this information. This points to the powerful capabilities of algorithms to create remarkably accurate profiles based on seemingly unrelated data points, such as friends lists, liked pages, and other online interactions. This level of profiling, based on publicly available and inferred data, might be far more comprehensive than most realize.
The $95 million settlement, while a substantial amount, represents a tiny fraction of Apple’s annual revenue. This casts doubt on the effectiveness of such settlements as true deterrents, especially considering the massive potential profits derived from data collection. The paltry amount each affected individual will receive – likely less than $20 – further underscores this point, leading to accusations that the settlement is inadequate and doesn’t truly address the underlying privacy concerns.
Many argue that the real concern isn’t necessarily Siri actively listening to every conversation, but the sheer volume of data already collected through other means. These other means include website tracking, geolocation data, app usage, purchasing history, social media interactions, and more. Modern algorithms can combine these data points to infer a surprisingly detailed understanding of individual users, rendering the need to actively listen to private conversations less critical.
Numerous accounts corroborate this perspective. One individual recounts receiving targeted ads for a video game following a visit from a cousin who extensively discussed the game, without ever activating a voice assistant. Another received ads for Scottish Highland calves after a casual conversation about a Scottish Highland Cow, further supporting the theory that other tracking methods are sufficient for highly targeted advertising.
Even with Siri disabled, individuals report receiving targeted ads related to conversations they’ve had, raising deeper concerns about the data collection practices of Apple and other tech giants. The fact that this occurs even with features like Siri turned off suggests that the issue transcends one specific product or feature.
The sheer scale of data collected by these companies makes the $95 million settlement seem like a trivial cost of doing business. The focus on whether or not Siri actively listens might be diverting attention from the more extensive and arguably more invasive collection of data that’s already occurring, regardless of device-specific features being enabled or disabled. In the end, the unsettling truth may be that our privacy is already compromised to a far greater extent than many realize. The conversation is shifting from the question of whether devices listen to our conversations to the more crucial question of what exactly is being tracked and how it’s being used.