Apple to pay $95m to settle lawsuit accusing Siri of eavesdropping

Apple has agreed to pay 95 million U.S. dollars to settle a lawsuit accusing the privacy-minded company of deploying its virtual assistant Siri to eavesdrop on people using its iPhone and other trendy devices, reported Xinhua.

"The proposed settlement filed on Tuesday in an Oakland, California, federal court would resolve a 5-year-old lawsuit revolving around allegations that Apple surreptitiously activated Siri to record conversations through iPhones and other devices equipped with the virtual assistant for more than a decade," reported The Associated Press on Friday about the development.

The alleged recordings occurred even when people didn't seek to activate the virtual assistant with the trigger words, "Hey, Siri." Some of the recorded conversations were then shared with advertisers in an attempt to sell their products to consumers more likely to be interested in the goods and services, the lawsuit asserted.

The allegations about a snoopy Siri contradicted Apple's long-running commitment to protect the privacy of its customers, a crusade that CEO Tim Cook has often framed as a fight to preserve "a fundamental human right."