Siri spied on iPhone users, court ruled. Apple repents and pays compensation

The mobile business is full of all kinds of lawsuits, and of course they don’t avoid even the biggest ones, including Apple. On the contrary, he is a frequent target of various cases and now he had to pay 95 million dollars (2.3 billion crowns). Siri got him into trouble, and the Californian giant has now published an interesting statement in which it clarifies how this virtual assistant actually works.

Siri is allegedly spying on iPhone users

This case has its roots in 2019 and was marked by a breach of privacy, an aspect that the Californian giant really prides itself on. He was accused of the fact that his assistant Siri eavesdrops on users for the purpose of targeted advertising, which Apple denies, but still paid compensation in the amount of the mentioned 95 million dollars (2.3 billion crowns).

This amount will be divided among all potentially affected users in the US, which works out to about $20 per device. With this fine, Apple has ended this almost 6-year-long dispute, however, it denies all allegations and, based on this, published on its website broad statementin which he sets the record straight about how Siri actually works.

Apple’s updated Siri | photo: Apple

User privacy above all else

In this post, Apple states that it is committed to user privacy and that its products and services are built from the ground up to protect it. The Californian giant maintains that Siri has never been used to create targeted advertising and the data has never reached advertisers. The popular assistant often works offline, i.e. directly on the device, so the data does not travel anywhere.

Sometimes, of course, it is not possible without communication with the servers, however, in this case, these actions are performed anonymously, via a random identifier. This process guarantees that no one can track the data or identify the submitter. If the user decides not to share audio recordings with Apple, they are automatically deleted.

Safer than ever

So Apple paid the court-ordered fine, even though it disagreed with the ruling and continues to stand by the fact that Siri did not eavesdrop on users for targeted advertising. Anyway, a lot of changes have been made in recent years to make Siri even more secure, more privacy-oriented, and it’s obvious that Apple wants to prevent these unpleasant situations in the future.