“Hey Siri, Are You Listening?”

What’s Behind Apple’s $95 Million Privacy Settlement?

​The news that Apple has agreed to a preliminary $95 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit about secret recordings of consumers by its virtual assistant Siri presents us with more questions than answers.
 
This lawsuit began five years ago in the aftermath of a story in The Guardian reporting that less than 1 percent of daily “Hey Siri” activations were being analyzed to improve the virtual assistant and understand human diction. Contractors listened to short snippets of pseudonymous conversations. Along the way, contractors heard confidential medical information, drug deals, and couples having sex. One contractor told The Guardian that in one conversation “you can definitely hear a doctor and patient.”
 
The lawsuit Apple settled alleges that the company not only listened in on conversations but sold them to advertisers. Plaintiffs claim that casual mentions of Air Jordan sneakers and the Olive Garden restaurant triggered ads for these products. Another plaintiff alleges that a private conversation about a brand-name surgical treatment with a doctor triggered ads for that service in his social media feeds.
 
This is a scandal, if true. But we’re withholding judgment. One reason Apple’s valuation is the largest in the world is its commitment to privacy, which CEO Tim Cook calls “a fundamental human right.” In the settlement, in which trial lawyers are set to walk away with about one-third of the take, Apple refused to acknowledge wrongdoing. An Apple spokesman told Fox News, “Siri data has never been used to build marketing profiles and it has never been sold to anyone for any purpose.”
 
We want to believe Apple. Yet we have to say concerning all virtual assistants, we’ve noticed like everyone else a strange correlation between random mentions of products or vacation destinations and ads that pop up on our feeds. Experts chalk this down to cognitive bias, that we often search for these items or hit websites that provoke us to think about them and forget about it. Maybe. But this happens often enough, with very specific items, that it still makes us wonder about what Siri, Alexa, and the rest are taking in.
 
And if they are taking in our private conversations, are federal agencies also able to take them in as well?
 
We may learn more when the settlement goes to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White for approval in a federal courtroom in Oakland next month. In meantime, try this: Sit next to Siri or Alexa, converse with a friend about Albanian beach vacations, and see what pops up in your feed.

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