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iPhone Users Now Able to Submit Claims in $95 Million Siri Spying Lawsuit

I have had SO many accidental Siri activations, even still.

Couple months ago I was streaming Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask and I asked “Fairy, where art thou” and my phone popped up and spouted off my current address… I guess it misinterpreted Fairy as Siri! I scrambled to stop Siri but I couldn’t get her to stop talking fast enough.

Thankfully it was quiet enough that it wasn’t audible on stream but Siri almost doxxed me lmao
 
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Siri has been engineered to protect user privacy from the beginning. Siri data has never been used to build marketing profiles and it has never been sold to anyone for any purpose. Apple settled this case to avoid additional litigation so we can move forward from concerns about third-party grading that we already addressed in 2019. We use Siri data to improve Siri, and we are constantly developing technologies to make Siri even more private.
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What I read from these very precisely worded legalese statements is that Siri data may have been provided to people for marketing, but they didn't directly pay for it. They paid Apple for some other privilege that then meant they got that data too.
 
You get $20 divided by the number of people who submit for it. The attorney gets two new Ferraris, and a vacation home in aspen.
 
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MacRumors said:
Claims for up to five Siri devices can be submitted, as long as the claimant pledges that each device was part of an accidental Siri activation during a conversation that was meant to be confidential or private.
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You've got to be kidding me, the requirement is met just because someone says so? Humans are notorious liars. I'm surprised that there is not extractable proof from the devices. Alexa has a trigger history which shows you the trigger, I'd have thought iOS had something similar?
 
This feels a bit etherial as far as class actions go, but I'll bite. The problem, to me, is that activating Siri usually also engenders either it mishearing something as "Hey Siri," or having a button pressed on a phone. So, yeah, I've seen Siri transcribe entire conversations, it has even occasionally responded to them, usually with some form of, "What in the hell are you asking me?" But... Is there some kind of internal list of "known known" recorded conversations that were reviewed? I guess I'll wait and see if I get a postcard <shrug>. Otherwise, literally anyone who has owned an iPhone can submit (with the relevant Serial Number information), and we'll all get a $.47 payout in two years. Having just received one of these, my motivation is low on this one: https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/lawsuit-californians-cash-thomson-reuters-20290760.php
 
America doesn’t have meaningful regulation on anything but thank god for class action lawsuits!
 
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aorr said:
I tried to submit a claim but how on earth am I supposed to have a record of the serial number for my iPhone 5 that I was using during that time period?!
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Doubt you need them, but if you bought it from Apple, and aren’t one of those weird people that deletes emails, you probably have it in an email receipt.
 
CocktailHour said:
There is no requirement to put in a serial number? Please don't encourage people to not apply.
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If you haven't received the email and click New Claim, instead of logging in with your Notice ID and Confirmation Code, you get prompted to enter a serial number. You can also upload a proof of purchase instead, but if you quickly skim through it, you may miss that part.

I haven't received an email or postcard yet, so I'm just going to wait and hopefully get one, considering I owned 11 different iPhones, multiple iPads, and multiple Apple Watches between 2014 and 2024... Otherwise I'll dig through my emails to get 5 serial numbers lol.
 
gatorvet96 said:
Only winners in a class action lawsuit are the attorneys.
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Most often, when a company breaks the law at your expense, the injury you sustain is trivial compared to the cost of obtaining a remedy. You’re not going to sue over $200 any more than you would $20, but companies are deterred (or punished) by collective action. $20x1,000,000 and suddenly you can afford an attorney. It’s one of the trade-offs for a fairly deregulated market. If class actions weren’t possible, or if the incentive structure changed, large corporations would have free rein.

maxoakland said:
America doesn’t have meaningful regulation on anything but thank god for class action lawsuits!
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It is the current bargain in America: protect it. I could see a future where class actions hurdles are higher, much like “tort reform” in many jurisdictions. This is an important tool that far too few Americans understand or appreciate.
 
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I thought this was a joke. Every day, since Siri launched, on my iPhone, HomePod or iMac, Siri will interrupt a phone conversation, a conversation at home between two people, even a conversation with the dog or randomly start playing music. If you say sorry, it is almost guaranteed to start her off :) This will be fun to follow
 
aorr said:
I tried to submit a claim but how on earth am I supposed to have a record of the serial number for my iPhone 5 that I was using during that time period?!
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How did you buy it? From Apple? If so, you should have a receipt in your email.
 
0815 said:
I stopped signing up for any of those settlements ... just not worth my time. There were many over the years across various companies, would have made a few bucks every year, really not worth it. These lawsuits only make the lawyers rich, the people affected by the issues get peanuts.
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I got a little over a $1000 from the Apple Developer lawsuit a few years ago (because Apple was caught cheating us on payouts).
 
bLackjackj said:
Apple loves you right back! Apple deserves to keep all your 95 million if everyone has your attitude.
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I couldn't care less if Siri did spy on me, so why would I waste my time on it? All because some moron decided he wanted some free money.
 
Anyone know if the emails are still being sent out, or if they are done with that phase? I haven't received anything yet. I guess I have until July to see if I get a Notice ID and Confirmation Code to file the claim the "official" way.

For those that did get a Notice ID and Confirmation Code, I assume it filled in your Siri devices automatically? (That's how things like this have usually worked in the past.) Or did you still have to enter them in yourself?
 
Graphate said:
It is the current bargain in America: protect it. I could see a future where class actions hurdles are higher, much like “tort reform” in many jurisdictions. This is an important tool that far too few Americans understand or appreciate.
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You can say that again! Just look at companies trying to force arbitration that they control
 
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jz0309 said:
I got that email yesterday, was thinking about how I might get $5 in a couple years out of this… not worth my time
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I think the site said it'll be $20 per device? The only annoying part is that they either want you to give your direct deposit info, or to send an e-check you have to print out for your bank, or mail you a physical check. These days some settlement administrators offer sending direct to other accounts, which I think is much safer because if hackers get your PayPal email they can't do much with it, compared to if they get your routing info, and a physical check or prepaid card can disappear out of the mail.
0815 said:
I stopped signing up for any of those settlements ... just not worth my time. There were many over the years across various companies, would have made a few bucks every year, really not worth it. These lawsuits only make the lawyers rich, the people affected by the issues get peanuts.
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Eh. I got a Facebook settlement payment straight to my PayPal recently for over $40. Had one a couple years ago for almost $80.

BTW I first found my claim email in my spam folder in GMail, so definitely check your spam for your official Apple account email before you try to go to the site on your own. These days, if they send you the email and it includes a claim number (like this one did), they already have enough documentation to put you in the class, so it's much less work. I didn't get asked what my serial number was for my iDevice for this one, for example, whereas someone earlier in the thread did. Obviously, though, check news articles to be sure any link is legitimate first before starting.

edit: my email arrived on Sunday, so probably everyone should have gotten one by now.
 
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Boeingfan said:
You've got to be kidding me, the requirement is met just because someone says so? Humans are notorious liars. I'm surprised that there is not extractable proof from the devices. Alexa has a trigger history which shows you the trigger, I'd have thought iOS had something similar?
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Even Alexa deletes after a couple months, provided you haven't manually deleted or set the expire time shorter. And it'd be a violation of privacy to have to go tag and submit the erroneous snippet for someone to judge. Who would even have time to read all those?
 
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