Apple has agreed to pay US$95 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the company of deploying its virtual assistant Siri to eavesdrop on people using its iPhone and other devices.
The proposed settlement filed on Tuesday in an Oakland, California, federal court would resolve a five-year-old lawsuit revolving around allegations that Apple surreptitiously activated Siri to record conversations through iPhones and other devices equipped with the virtual assistant for more than a decade.
The alleged recordings occurred even when people did not seek to activate the virtual assistant with the trigger words, “Hey, Siri.”
Photo: AFP
Some of the recorded conversations were shared with advertisers in an attempt to sell their products to consumers more likely to be interested in the goods and services, the lawsuit said.
The allegations contradicted Apple’s promises to protect the privacy of its customers — which Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook has often framed as a fight to preserve “a fundamental human right.”
Apple is not acknowledging any wrongdoing in the settlement, which must be approved by US District Judge Jeffrey White.
Lawyers in the case have proposed scheduling a Feb. 14 court hearing in Oakland to review the terms.
If the settlement is approved, tens of millions of consumers who owned iPhones and other Apple devices from Sept. 17, 2014, through the end of last year could file claims. Each consumer could receive up to US$20 per Siri-equipped device covered by the settlement, although the payment could be reduced or increased, depending on the volume of claims.
Only 3 to 5 percent of eligible consumers are expected to file claims, estimates in court documents said.
Eligible consumers would be limited to seeking compensation on a maximum of five devices.
The settlement represents a sliver of the US$705 billion in profit that Apple has pocketed since September 2014. It is also a fraction of the roughly US$1.5 billion that the lawyers representing consumers had estimated Apple could been required to pay if the company had been found of violating wiretapping and other privacy laws had the case gone to a trial.
The attorneys who filed the lawsuit might seek up to US$29.6 million from the settlement fund to cover their fees and other expenses, court documents showed.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS