❌

Reading view

There are new articles available, click to refresh the page.

Millions of Apple device owners may be eligible for a payout in a proposed $95 million Siri privacy settlement

Type to Siri graphic
Apple agreed to a $95 million cash payout to settle a proposed class action lawsuit alleging privacy violations tied to the Siri voice assistant.

Apple

  • Apple agreed to settle a Siri privacy lawsuit that alleged privacy violations.
  • The plaintiffs said Siri recorded private conversations when unintentionally activated and shared them with third parties.
  • Apple denied wrongdoing as the settlement awaits court approval.

Have you ever had a private conversation, glanced at your iPhone or Apple Watch, and realized Siri had been accidentally activated? You might be entitled to a small payout.

Apple agreed to a $95 million cash payout to settle a proposed class action lawsuit alleging privacy violations tied to the Siri voice assistant.

Plaintiffs said the alleged privacy violations took place over a 10-year period from September 2014 to December 31, beginning when Apple introduced the "Hey, Siri" voice activation feature.

The lawsuit alleges Apple recorded snippets of private and confidential conversations when Siri was unintentionally activated, which were then shared with third parties, such as human reviewers and advertisers.

The company has denied any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

After The Guardian reported in 2019 that Apple contractors frequently overheard portions of private conversations while reviewing Siri recordings for quality control, Apple issued a rare apology and announced changes to how it graded user interactions with the voice assistant.

"As a result of our review, we realize we haven't been fully living up to our high ideals, and for that we apologize," the company said in 2019.

The class-action lawsuit was filed against Apple in the wake of The Guardian's report.

Eligible class members, estimated to be in the tens of millions, can receive up to $20 per Siri-enabled device, according to a preliminary settlement filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

The proposed settlement defines eligible class members as "all individual current or former owners or purchasers of a Siri Device, who reside in the United States and its territories." They also must be willing to declare under oath that Apple recorded their confidential conversations while Siri was inadvertently activated.

The size of each individual payout will fluctuate depending on how many eligible Siri-enabled devices they own and how many total claimants there are.

Under the proposed settlement, Apple would be required to publish a webpage to explain how users can opt-in to improve Siri and what information will be stored. Additionally, Apple would have to confirm that it has permanently deleted individual audio recordings from Siri collected before October 2019.

It's now up to US District Judge Jeffrey White to approve the settlement. Lawyer fees for the plaintiffs could cost Apple an additional $28.5 million and another $1.1 million for litigation expenses, according to the court documents.

Apple first launched Siri in 2011 with the iPhone 4S.
Apple first launched Siri in 2011 with the iPhone 4S.

AFP/AFP via Getty Images

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Business Insider.

Siri was first introduced in 2011 with the iPhone 4S. The tech giant is "entering a new era" of a more personal and conversational AI-powered Siri. With the help of OpenAI's ChatGPT, the revamped Siri can handle more complex requests.

The new Siri can use AI to have "on-screen awareness" and "personal context understanding," Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, during the "Glowtime" event in September 2024.

The overhauled Siri is expected to be rolled out in full next year.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Siri β€œunintentionally” recorded private convos; Apple agrees to pay $95M

Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that its voice assistant Siri routinely recorded private conversations that were then shared with third parties and used for targeted ads.

In the proposed class-action settlementβ€”which comes after five years of litigationβ€”Apple admitted to no wrongdoing. Instead, the settlement refers to "unintentional" Siri activations that occurred after the "Hey, Siri" feature was introduced in 2014, where recordings were apparently prompted without users ever saying the trigger words, "Hey, Siri."

Sometimes Siri would be inadvertently activated, a whistleblower told The Guardian, when an Apple Watch was raised and speech was detected. The only clue that users seemingly had of Siri's alleged spying was eerily accurate targeted ads that appeared after they had just been talking about specific items like Air Jordans or brands like Olive Garden, Reuters noted (claims which remain disputed).

Read full article

Comments

Β© Wachiwit | iStock Editorial / Getty Images Plus

Apple is working on an AI-powered Siri overhaul by 2026. Here's what we know about the full Apple Intelligence timeline.

iPhone 16 taking a photo of an iPhone display
With the iOS 18.1 update, the iPhone 16 Pro has access to Apple Intelligence.

NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images

  • Apple Intelligence for iPhone 15 Pro and later was released in September.
  • However, some AI features, like "LLM Siri," reportedly won't be available until 2026.
  • The first update included a new Siri interface, enhanced Messages, and Mail app improvements.

Much of the chatter about the newest iPhone 16 models has been about how they can support Apple Intelligence.

There are also still a lot of questions about when, exactly, all the cool new AI features will be fully available.

Apple has touted the iPhone 16 as a phone "built from the ground up" for artificial intelligence. It hit the market in September, and Apple Intelligence began rolling out later that month as part of the iOS 18.1 software update.

The first AI drop included several new features available on the iPhone 15 Pro or later, but some of the tools highlighted at June's Worldwide Developer Conference won't come to iOS until 2025 or later.

Although the first AI rollout as part of the iOS 18.1 software update included some tweaks to virtual assistant Siri, Apple is still working to infuse improved large language models into the voice assistant by 2026, Bloomberg reported. The goal is to make Siri even more conversational to rival competitors in the AI arms race.

This "LLM Siri" would compete with AI offerings made by companies like OpenAI and Google. It is expected to be announced in 2025 and released as part of iOS 19 the year after.

Apple has yet to provide a clear-cut calendar for the full Apple Intelligence rollout, but it provided some more details on the timeline when it announced iOS 18.1.

Here's an estimated timeline for the US English Apple Intelligence release based on what experts on Apple and the company have said since WWDC.

October is the initial Apple Intelligence beta test.

When iOS 18.1 came out in September, it included the option for those with eligible iPhones to enable Apple Intelligence.

Here are some of the features that came in the first drop.

  • Updates to the Messages app, including more extensive reply suggestions
  • A new section of the Mail app that categorizes high-priority messages.
  • The Reduce Interruptions Focus mode β€” similar to Do Not Disturb, but your phone will allow alerts from messages it deems urgent.
  • Email and text summaries in notifications.
  • Writing Tools, which will help with summarizing, proofreading, and editing bodies of text.
  • A new Siri animation and interface that will make the perimeter of a device's screen glow, along with a "Type to Siri" feature.

There's more to come in December.

Apple said more colorful features are coming next month.

  • Visual intelligence, which Apple said will "help users learn about objects and places instantly" using their camera.
  • Writing tools will get an upgrade, allowing it to apply more specific changes to text.
  • OpenAI's ChatGPT will also be integrated into eligible iPhones.

The new Siri and more languages are coming in 2025 and beyond.

Apple has been promoting a "more personal Siri" in its marketing, but Bloomberg correspondent Mark Gurman reported that it won't come out for a while.

In one clip from Apple, actor Bella Ramsey asks Siri to recall the name of a man they met months prior. The revamped Siri assistant instantly reminds Ramsey of the man's name, which is impressive, but the feature won't be available on iPhone 15s or iPhone 16s until 2025 or later.

It's unclear if this will come as part of the overhauled version of Siri expected in 2026 or in earlier updates.

According to the company, Apple Intelligence will first be available in American English and will "quickly expand" to other English-speaking countries, including Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, and the UK in December.

Apple said more languages are coming in April. So far, they include Indian English, Singaporean English, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Vietnamese, and more.

An earlier version of this story was published September 22.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Apple is reportedly building a more conversational Siri powered by LLMs

Apple is developing a new version of its voice assistant, Siri, powered by advanced large language models (LLMs), according to sources cited by Bloomberg. This more conversational Siri is part of Apple’s attempt to catch up in AI, where competitors have released impressive features, like Google’s Gemini Live, that are far more natural to talk […]

Β© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Messenger gets HD video calls, AI backgrounds, and more

Meta is introducing new features for Messenger, its messaging app, including AI-powered noise suppression. Messenger is getting HD video calls and voice isolation, both of which can be enabled via the call settings menu. HD calls are now the default for calls placed over Wi-Fi, Meta says, and an option for calls over cellular. Messenger […]

Β© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

❌