Apple to pay $95 million fine for privacy violation

In 2019, many American consumers launched a class action against Appleaccusing the apple giant of recording private conversations without their knowledge via the Siri assistant. According to the class action, Siri could in fact be activated accidentally, record information and then transmit it to third parties (notably advertisers). Apple, which has nevertheless built its image on respect for users' privacy, today decides to take the path of an amicable agreement, rather than trying to go through to the end of the procedure.

An agreement rather than continuing procedures

In the agreement, Apple still denies the facts: “Apple has consistently denied and continues to deny any alleged wrongdoing and liability“. At the same time, the choice of the amicable agreement was made by the firm, which does not wish to see the procedure go any further, five years of legal battle later. The agreement also specifies that the The company confirms that it has deleted all this data and will now have to explain to consumers the possible choices in terms of storing data collected by Siri, for greater transparency.

Note, however, that the $95 million agreement must still be accepted by the courts. If it is, then several million users may be eligible to receive compensation, which could be up to $20 per person. As a reminder, this procedure is reminiscent of that targeting Amazon in 2023, which resulted in an agreement of more than $30 million paid to the FTC to end lawsuits against its Ring connected doorbells and cameras and its voice assistant Alexa.