Apple pays £77m to halt lawsuit claiming your iPhone DOES spy on you - and millions of customers could be in line for a payout
Apple will pay £77million to settle a court case which alleged its devices listened to their owners without their consent.
The tech giant had been accused of using its virtual assistant Siri to eavesdrop on and record conversations for more than a decade.
The proposed settlement was filed in a California federal court and would resolve the lawsuit, which has been in the company’s in-tray for five years.
Customers with iPhones, iPads and other Apple products can request Siri’s assistance by saying ‘Hey, Siri’.
But the lawsuit alleged that the firm was obtaining user conversations even when the words were not uttered.
Some of the recordings were then shared with advertisers in an attempt to sell their products to consumers, it was alleged.
Lead plaintiff Fumiko Lopez claims she and her daughter were both recorded without their permission and went on to receive targeted promotions for products such as Nike trainers.
Apple’s legal team said it will confirm the company has ‘permanently deleted individual Siri audio recordings collected by Apple prior to October 2019’.
The proposed settlement was filed in a California federal court and would resolve the lawsuit, which has been in the company’s in-tray for five years. Picture: Stock image of iPhone
The Siri case contradicts Apple’s long-running commitment, used as a selling point in recent years, to protect the privacy of its customers. Apple boss Tim Cook has often framed this endeavour as a fight to preserve a ‘fundamental human right’.
However, Apple is not acknowledging any wrongdoing in the new settlement, which was filed on Tuesday and still needs the approval of a US district judge. The company repeatedly refuted the allegations and continues to do so.
Lawyers in the case have proposed scheduling a court hearing in the middle of next month to review the terms.
If the settlement is approved, tens of millions of consumers who owned iPhones and other Apple devices from September 17, 2014, until the end of last year could file their own claims. However, only those customers based in the United States can benefit from the proposed payout.
Each consumer could receive up to £16 per Siri-equipped device covered by the settlement, although the payment could be reduced or increased, depending on the volume of claims.
Estimates in the court documents predict that only 3 to 5 per cent of eligible consumers would file claims. They would also be limited to seeking compensation on a maximum of five devices.
The settlement represents a fraction of the £570billion in profits that Apple has made since September 2014.
That includes a profit of nearly £80billion in the three months from September 2024.
The tech giant had been accused of using its virtual assistant Siri to eavesdrop on and record conversations for more than a decade. Picture: Stock image
Apple is not acknowledging any wrongdoing in the new settlement, which was filed on Tuesday and still needs the approval of a US district judge. PIcture: Stock image
Lawyers representing consumers had estimated Apple could have been required to pay roughly £1.2billion if the company had been found guilty of violating wiretapping and other privacy laws had the case gone to a trial.
The attorneys who filed the lawsuit may seek up to £23.8million from the settlement fund to cover their fees and other expenses, court documents add.
This case is not the first class action lawsuit Apple has faced in recent years.
A year ago the firm began paying out for a £400million lawsuit claiming it intentionally slowed down US devices.
And in March it agreed to pay £385million to settle a case in Britain with Norfolk County Council, having been accused of defrauding a pension fund managed by the local authority.
Two months ago, Which? also started a class action lawsuit against Apple in the UK, accusing it of ripping customers off for its iCloud platform.
An Apple spokesperson commented: 'Siri has been engineered to protect user privacy from the beginning. Siri data has never been used to build marketing profiles and it has never been sold to anyone for any purpose.
'Apple settled this case to avoid additional litigation so we can move forward from concerns about third-party grading that we already addressed in 2019. We use Siri data to improve Siri, and we are constantly developing technologies to make Siri even more private.'
