By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) – Apple (AAPL) agreed to pay $95 million in cash to settle a proposed class action lawsuit that claimed its voice-activated Siri assistant violated users’ privacy.
A preliminary agreement was filed Tuesday night in federal court in Oakland, California, and requires approval from U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White.
Mobile device owners complained that Apple routinely recorded their private conversations after inadvertently activating Siri and revealed them to third parties, such as advertisers.
Voice assistants often react when people use “hot words” like “Hey, Siri.”
Two plaintiffs said their mentions of Air Jordan sneakers and Olive Garden restaurants triggered ads for those products. Another said he received advertisements for a brand-name surgical treatment after discussing it, he thought privately, with his doctor.
The class period runs from September 17, 2014 to December 31, 2024. It began when Siri introduced the “Hey Siri” feature that allegedly led to the unauthorized recordings.
Members of the group, estimated to number in the tens of millions, can receive up to $20 per Siri-enabled device, such as iPhones and Apple Watches.
Apple denied wrongdoing by agreeing to settle.
The Cupertino, California-based company and its lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to similar requests. They can seek up to $28.5 million in fees, plus $1.1 million in expenses, from the settlement fund.
The $95 million is about nine hours of profit for Apple, whose net income was $93.74 billion in its last fiscal year.
A similar lawsuit on behalf of Google Voice Assistant users is pending in federal court in San Jose, California, in the same district as the Oakland court. The plaintiffs are represented by the same law firms as in the Apple case.
The case is Lopez et al v. Apple Inc., U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 19-04577.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by Susan Fenton)