Apple will pay $95 million to people who were spied on by Siri
VergeJan 01
Apple Proposes $95M Payout to Settle Siri 'Eavesdropping' Case
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Above: Attendees wait in line outside the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium ahead of the Apple World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Monday, June 13, 2016. Image copyright: Michael Short/Bloomberg/Contributor via Getty Images
The Facts
Apple has agreed to pay $95M to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that its devices surreptitiously listened to users through the virtual-assistant tool, Siri, thereby violating users' policy agreements.
The lawsuit alleged that the tech giant recorded users without activation of the trigger words "Hey, Siri," and further claimed that these recordings were then shared with advertisers in an attempt to market goods and services that users were more likely to be interested in.
Making the proposed settlement at a US federal court in Oakland, California, on Tuesday, Apple did not acknowledge any wrongdoing.
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
Proposing to settle does not mean Apple has been guilty of illegally recording users; the company is simply choosing to resolve the matter outside of court to avoid further speculative headlines and risk the costs involved in the case spiraling out of control.
Establishment-critical narrative
Apple's proposed payout of $95M may seem gigantic, but merely reflects the profits made by the company every nine hours. If Apple is guilty of the allegations made in this lawsuit, it ought to be making a much larger payment.
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