Spying Siri settlement: tiny payout for big breach

Siri’s eavesdropping led to a $95 million payout by Apple, with users set to receive up to $20 each.

Apple has agreed to settle a lawsuit for $95 million dollars regarding its voice assistant Siri and its ability to listen in on conversations you might have been having in your private life.

Many mobile device owners have previously complained about the intrusion of Siri, especially when the eavesdropping has gone against the wishes of the user.

Usually, a user would instigate a conversation with Siri themselves by saying, for example, “Siri” or “Hi Siri.”

However, as is often the case with these voice-activated agents, they pop up against your will and listen in, often bombarding one with ads.

Various plaintiffs have been singled out as examples. One includes an ad for Air Jordan sneakers and another for Olive Garden restaurants.

Most significantly, however, is a patient who got ads for surgical treatment after what they thought was a private conversation with their doctor.

This period of liability runs from September 17th, 2024 to December 31st, 2024 and is part of a “class action lawsuit,” whereby any of the class members affected can claim compensation.

A class member is predicted to be able to claim up to $20 per Siri-enabled device, be it a iPhones, iPads, HomePod speakers, Mac computers, Apple Watches or Apple TV. Therefore, tens of millions of customers are expected to claim and to do this you would have to confirm this under oath by filling out a claim form, which is pending court approval.

$95 million is approximately nine hours of profit for Apple, who made $94 billion net in their last fiscal year.

This lawsuit has raised concerns, particularly as Apple takes pride in its customers' security and privacy. Siri has clearly overstepped the boundaries by listening too much.

Broadly speaking, this sends out a serious message to tech companies that a user's trust shouldn’t be taken for granted and that digital assistants are perhaps not as secure as was once thought.

The tech industry will need to be more vigilant in handling user data as transparency in these kinds of situations becomes more prominent.

When convenience comes with strings attached

On the other side of the coin, if a user sets up a Siri reminder for their operational catchup meeting in the company's on-site cafe, they are in fact consenting for their location and browsing habits to be shared. Wouldn’t it be fair to assume you could get an ad for a loyalty card at the coffee shop?

When a user integrates Siri with their daily life, namely checking the weather, playing music, shopping online, and reading horoscopes, then data tracking is as normal as buying bottled water at the airport – nobody enjoys it but it’s become a daily norm.

It also seems surprising from the case how oblivious people seem to receive such ads. If you have a conversation about Air Jordans, can you be surprised to get an ad for sports sneakers?

Such a continuous flow of information is bound to have our smartphone recording us in the background. Though Apple has had to pay a significant penalty here, can we expect similar cases cropping up across the board?

What is for sure is that both users and tech companies seem to have woken up now, and this certainly opens up wider conversations about how our data is handled.

Eavesdropping or paranoia? What your phone really hears

As we’ve covered previously, your phone is particularly receptive to ultrasonic signals given out by other devices like your television. Companies such as McDonald’s send out ultrasonic beacons undetected to the human ear – a bit like when they pump out the airborne hot fats for you to smell – and then your phones can pick up on this and spoonfeed it back to you.

Ultrasonic signals are like a Border Collie at a sheepdog trial – you can’t hear the whistle, but it’s rounding up all your data.

And perhaps it’s an unfair tradeoff that we have to accept when having a virtual assistant. If Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant are offered as a kind of concierge, why should they blurt out your conversations to other parties? Does the hotel porter do that when handling your bags?

You still have a right to privacy and shouldn’t have to dig around under the bonnet for this right.

Invalidating permissions from Siri et al. is the first step. Simply turning off voice activation mode and reviewing your app permissions is a fine way to start. And now that Apple has joined the data breach club, this fine-tuning seems like specialist knowledge for the end user – if only it were common to the layman.

And while advertisers may commonly try every under-the-bonnet trick with predictive audience technology and, of course, deny any wrongdoing – it’s disconcerting to know that every conversation you have is being recorded, monitored, taped, and harvested.

All of this, just to claim $20 back from Apple, which you can then spend on two quarter-pounder meals, Chicken McNuggets, and a coke.