After agreeing to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit that claimed Siri recordings were shared with advertisers, Apple has now issued a statement on how it handles Siri data.

"Apple has never used Siri data to build marketing profiles, never made it available for advertising, and never sold it to anyone for any purpose. We are constantly developing technologies to make Siri even more private and will continue to do so," the statement reads.

The lawsuit, filed in 2019, claims Apple unlawfully recorded users' private conversations through Siri. In a subsequent filing in 2021, the plaintiffs accused Apple of sharing those recordings with third parties and said they had started receiving ads based on real-life conversations with friends, family, and even physicians.

One of them received ads for a surgical treatment described by their physician, and two others received ads from brands like "Pit Viper sunglasses" and "Air Jordans" soon after they discussed those products.

The lawsuit also cited a Guardian article claiming Apple hired human reviewers to grade Siri-recorded conversations without user consent. After the story broke, Apple issued an apology, halted the program, and revised its Siri policies. However, when it settled the case last week, it did so without admitting any wrongdoing.

In its statement this week, Apple confirmed it no longer "retains audio recordings of Siri interactions unless users explicitly opt-in to help improve Siri, and even then, the recordings are used solely for that purpose." It also stated that Siri requests are processed on-device whenever possible.

Apple's $95 million settlement is still awaiting approval from US District Judge Jeffrey White, which could lead to millions of Apple users receiving up to $20 per Siri-enabled device.

By: DocMemory
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