Hey, Siri, butt out!
Google and Apple listened in on and recorded millions of unwitting customers’ conversations — and will soon fork over a combined $163 million to resolve the eavesdropping debacle, according to a pair of bombshell lawsuits.
Apple has started sending out payments to settle its $95 million class-action complaint, which accused the Cupertino tech giant of spying on users who never once uttered the prompt, “Hey, Siri,” according to court documents.
Some people reported that their Apple devices pushed ads for brands — like Olive Garden and Air Jordan — that they had discussed in conversations that were secretly recorded.
Google, meanwhile, has reached a tentative, $68 million settlement after its Google Assistant surreptitiously activated and recorded users without the hot words, “OK Google,” according to court documents viewed by The Post.
That deal, part of a 2019 lawsuit, still has to be OKed by a judge.
Siri and Google Assistant are voice-activated aides that can perform tasks, including sending text messages, making calls or reciting the weather.
Both tech behemoths, which are accused of using the secret recordings to improve their respective products, have denied any wrongdoing.
Apple now requires users to opt in before recorded audio is used for improving Siri’s functionality, according to The Mac Observer.
Anyone who purchased an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, MacBook, iMac, HomePod, iPod touch or Apple TV between Sept. 17, 2014 and Dec. 31, 2024 and experienced an unintended Siri activation was eligible for a payout. Some have been doled out via prepaid cards or direct deposit.
The amount paid out to individuals is capped at $20 per Siri-enabled device, according to the settlement website, with a maximum of five impacted devices per person.
The $95 million figure represents about nine hours of profit for Apple, which raked in $93.74 billion in net income over the last fiscal year.
“Apple denies all of the allegations made in the lawsuit and denies that Apple did anything improper or unlawful,” the giant said on its website.
The suit was filed in 2019 by Fumiko Lopez and others who alleged their recorded discussions were shared with third-party businesses, such as restaurants and brands, which led to targeted ads in Apple Search and Safari.
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Two plaintiffs said their mentions of the Olive Garden and Air Jordan speakers led to them getting ads for those products.
Another said he got ads for a brand-name surgical treatment after discussing it with his doctor.
In 2020, Apple paid $113 million to settle another class-action lawsuit that accused it of deliberately slowing down older-model iPhones to hide battery issues and push users to purchase newer devices.
The device maker also denied any wrongdoing in that case.
Members of the class-action suit against Google include all users in the US who purchased a Google-made device and whose Gmail accounts were associated with at least one Google Assistant-enabled device between May 18, 2016 and Dec. 16, 2022.
The final settlement amount still needs approval from a federal judge.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
