Apple has agreed to pay $95 million (92.5 million euros) to end lawsuits from American consumers, who accuse it of having without their knowledge recorded their private conversations with its voice assistant Siri, present in particular on iPhones.
“Apple has consistently denied and continues to deny any alleged wrongdoing and liability”specifies the agreement signed Tuesday, December 31, which must still be approved by the courts. The large Californian technology group, which has built its brand image on the performance of its devices and respect for users' privacy, is emerging from five years of legal battle.
According to the class action lawsuit filed in 2019, Siri could be accidentally activated and record private conversations. The plaintiffs accuse Apple of violating user privacy by transmitting these recordings to third parties. The agreement requires the company to confirm that it has indeed deleted them and to explain to users their choices in terms of storing data collected by Siri, if they choose to help Apple improve the voice assistant.
Similar deal for Amazon in 2023
The American group did not immediately respond to a request from Agence France-Presse.
The sum, which will be distributed among a potentially large number of eligible consumers residing in the United States, should not weigh on the accounts of Apple, one of the largest capitalizations in the world.
In 2023, Amazon agreed to pay more than $30 million (29.2 million euros) to the US Consumer Protection Agency (FTC) to end lawsuits against its Ring doorbells and connected cameras and its Alexa voice assistant. The FTC accused it of having given access to customer videos to hundreds of employees and contractors, and of having stored personal data (on users' voices, their geographic location, etc.) that it had yet promised to delete.
France
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