How much is your privacy worth? More than $20, perhaps? One might think that’s a pretty low ballpark figure. After all, many would expect privacy to be priceless — something not for sale at any price. But for millions of people spied on by Apple’s Siri, $20 is the going rate.
In early January, Apple agreed to a $95 million settlement stemming from a 2019 class action suit in the United States. The case alleged that Siri, the company’s artificial intelligence assistant, had recorded user’s voices — and even private conversations — without their consent.
The $95 million settlement isn’t much — it shakes out to roughly $20 per person, per device, and potentially less, depending on how many people file claims. The payout seems particularly insulting given the details of what was overheard. In 2019, the Guardian reported that Apple contractors “regularly” listened to private conversations and encounters including medical appointments, drug deals, and sex. The recordings were made accidentally when Sir “misheard” a word as its activation cue. It’s safe to assume that people weren’t deliberately activating it to share their most intimate moments with a global tech behemoth and its subcontractors.
We’ve come a long way from the days of caveat emptor — “buyer beware” — when issues of safety and consumer rights were left unaddressed. Social agitation and consumer rights movements, often in alliance with labor, fought for and won protections that persist to this day. But now, they’re being undermined bit by bit.
As the…
Auteur: David Moscrop
