iPhone maker Apple (AAPL) settled a long-standing class action lawsuit by agreeing to pay $95 million. The company also cleared misconceptions about Siri’s privacy norms. Apple was accused of illegally recording Siri’s private interactions with humans and using them for creating marketing profiles and selling them to third parties.
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The settlement relates to a lawsuit pertaining to U.S.-based iPhone users between September 2014 and December 2024. Those eligible for the settlement will receive $20 per Siri-enabled device, with a maximum of five claims per person.
Further Details of Apple’s Siri Lawsuit
Apple was also accused of selling its data from Siri to third parties such as advertisers. The company has denied any wrongdoing in the case and preferred to settle it and move on. However, Apple did confirm that some of Siri’s features require real-time input from Apple servers and that only limited data is used in such cases to produce accurate results. Furthermore, Apple confirmed that some of Siri’s audio recordings are saved in cases where the users opt-in for such service to improve Siri, but even those are never used for unintended purposes.
Apple also confirmed that it is determined to develop technology that will improve Siri’s privacy policies. The company stated that Siri processes almost every request on the device itself without sending any information to Apple servers. There have been similar lawsuits with tech companies such as Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google Voice Assistant and Amazon’s (AMZN) Alexa. The latter settled the lawsuit by paying $30 million to claimants. Plus, Apple confirmed that searches and requests made on Siri are not connected to the user’s Apple account.
Is AAPL a Good Stock to Buy?
Analysts currently remain divided on Apple stock’s trajectory owing to its diminishing smartphone market share in China. On TipRanks, AAPL stock has a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on 19 Buys, seven Holds, and three Sell ratings. Also, the average Apple price target of $244.77 implies that shares are almost fully valued at current levels.
