U.S residents may be eligible for compensation.

APPLE LAWSUIT

Have you ever thought your device is listening to you? Or noticed that advertisements have started to appear online just moments after discussing the very same products with someone?

Notifications are going out to a massive group of Apple device owners, informing them they may be eligible to claim money from a $95 million class action settlement.

The privacy lawsuit was filed over Siri “listening in” when users had not intentionally activated the voice assistant.

In 2019, a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of Northern California alleged that Apple contractors had come across Siri activations that appeared inadvertent, capturing private conversations.

This followed a report from The Guardian that cited a source who claimed the recordings sometimes contained medical information and other sensitive audio.

The lawsuit included statements from multiple plaintiffs who alleged that their personal data — contained in unintended Siri recordings — ended up in the hands of advertisers.

They allegedly noticed suspect ads after they talked about things like Olive Garden, Air Jordan sneakers and a “‘brand name’ surgical treatment” in the proximity of Siri devices, according to the complaint.

The case involved recordings that were captured after people opted in to a routine permissions request that allowed Apple to use their data to “improve Siri”.

In a January statement, Apple said it “…has never used Siri data to build marketing profiles, never made it available for advertising, and never sold it to anyone for any purpose.”

Apple argued it was a ‘good steward’ of this data and emphasised the limitations on how it was used.

Despite continuing to deny any wrongdoing, Apple has now agreed to a preliminary settlement to avoid further litigation to the cost of almost $100 million.

To receive compensation from this payout, you must reside in the United States and be a “current or former owner or purchaser of a Siri Device.”

A Siri device could be an iPhone, but the settlement also covers unintended voice assistant activations on other devices, including the iPad, Apple Watch, MacBook, iMac, HomePod, iPod touch and Apple TV.

You must also attest under oath to the statement that “you experienced an unintended Siri activation” during the time period above and “the unintended Siri activation you experienced occurred during a conversation intended to be confidential or private.”

Indeed, this is yet another case that highlights just how vulnerable society’s privacy can be in the digital age, with apps, platforms and even devices continuously being shown to ‘listen in’ on our conversations.

What they hear can also be used against you in a court of law, it has been shown.

BIG BROTHER IS LISTENING

This lawsuit has raised privacy concerns and added to people’s fears that they’re constantly being listened to by phones and other smart devices, like Alexa and Google Nest speakers. 

In fact, this is not the first time this has occurred. We have seen this type of thing before.

Amazon’s Alexa was the first to be used as a ‘murder witness’

In a 2015 case, James Bates was charged with murder, and the court requested Alexa recordings from the scene. While the case gained national attention, the recordings ultimately didn’t provide crucial information, and Bates was discharged. 

In a 2017 case, Timothy Verrill was accused of murder, and police found Echo devices at the scene. The court ordered Amazon to produce recordings from those devices, believing they might contain evidence of the crime. 

In the US, a judge in New Hampshire ordered Amazon to give any recordings made by an Echo device as evidences of the murder of two women in January 2017.

According to the authorities, the company had recordings were considered “useful” in the investigation of the crimes, as the smart device was ‘listening in’ at the time.

Similarly, police in Florida hoped that Alexa recordings from a murder scene could help them solve the case, as the device was present in the victim’s home, according to reports. 

Even if used for the right purposes, this highlights the dystopian nature of how these devices are always ‘listening in’, which should be a concern to every citizen who owns one.

And, even though these are U.S-based cases, it could happen here at home as well.

Reports show that Australian authorities love asking Big Tech for user data. They love it so much that the number is more than 4x the international average, actually.

In addition to this case mobile phone users have also expressed concerns about third-party apps misusing microphone access for unintended purposes, such as eavesdropping on sensitive conversations.

Research suggests that malicious apps might even use your phone’s gyroscope to capture sound vibrations and reconstruct audio data.

This means that even if you deny microphone access, an app could potentially listen in on your conversations through the gyroscope.

By being aware of these potential risks and taking steps to protect your privacy, you can help ensure that your data is not misused by third-party apps. 

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