If you've ever felt like your iPhone was eavesdropping on you, then you might have actually been right. Surprise, surprise. That's because Apple just agreed to pay $95 million in order to settle a lawsuit that claimed Siri was spying on users. [00:00:15] Now, keep in mind that because Apple agreed to settle, they did not have to actually admit to any wrongdoing. But that aside, here is what you need to know. The class action lawsuit was brought against Apple way back in 2019. Who can even remember what 2019 was forever ago? [00:00:31] It alleges that Siri could be accidentally activated without the Hey Siri command. Siri would then listen and record users information, which Apple would pass on to third parties, allegedly, and this is reporting from CNet, says specific incidents mentioned in the suit include plaintiffs seeing ads online [00:00:50] for brands like Air Jordan and Olive garden, after Apple device users discussed them out loud. In some instances, plaintiffs claim that their devices began listening to them without them having said anything at all. At least one plaintiff involved in the case was a minor when it was first filed. [00:01:09] The lawsuit followed a damning 2019 report by The Guardian that revealed Apple passed on Siri recordings to third party contractors around the world. They were tasked with grading how Siri navigated its interaction and responded to users. [00:01:25] But in some of those interactions, users had accidentally turned on Siri. A whistleblower told the Guardian There have been countless instances of recordings featuring private discussions between doctors and patients, business deals, seemingly criminal dealings, sexual encounters, and so on. [00:01:44] These recordings are accompanied by user data showing location, contact details and app data. Apple never made it known that they were sending its consumers information to these contractors, and these users never knew that other people were listening in [00:02:00] on their accidental recordings. Apple later issued an apology and promised that it would no longer be saving users recordings. Thank you. But circling back to that lawsuit. If the settlement is approved, tens of millions of consumers who owned iPhones and other Apple devices from September 17th, [00:02:18] 2014 through the end of last year could file claims each consumer could receive up to $20 per Siri equipped device covered by the settlement, although the payment could be reduced or increased depending on the volume of claims. [00:02:34] To be eligible for the settlement, you have to swear under oath that you accidentally activated Siri during a private conversation that was not intended to be recorded. Additionally, you can only get paid for five devices maximum. Also, the settlement represents just a sliver of the $705 billion [00:02:53] in profits that Apple has pocketed since since September 2014. It's also a fraction of the roughly $1.5 billion that the lawyers representing consumers had estimated Apple could have been required to pay if the company had been found of violating wiretapping and other [00:03:10] privacy laws had the case gone to trial. Well, this is one of those lawsuits that, for a company as unfathomably gigantic as Apple, is just considered to be part of the cost of doing business, right. You heard the numbers of how much money they bring in, how much money they [00:03:26] would have had to pay, just the attorneys if the case had gone to trial. If running a business is just about the numbers and the bottom line, then Apple choosing to settle this is a win win for them. It saved them money in the long run and they never have to admit to any wrongdoing. Sharon, you know this is super creepy, but it's perhaps no more [00:03:45] than people had long suspected. It was one of those things that maybe started off a little bit conspiratorially, but now I think most people just assume on some level that their tech is spying on them. Do you think this is just the future that we have to look forward to, especially when mechanisms that are meant to deter this sort of behavior just [00:04:02] don't seem to be effective at doing so. Yeah, the future is now. Okay. If you did this, just you one person to an ex or something, they probably throw the book at you. This is a joke. You know, I, before I dumped him, had an attorney as my significant other. [00:04:20] I don't want to go there. And he used to tell me he knew this class action attorney. And they'd get together and they'd have these little, you know, retreats, if you will, and they'd sit around and they would discuss who to go after next and where the big money is. And that's like, all this is they don't even have to say they did anything wrong. [00:04:38] It's not like Apple didn't know they were doing this. By the way, you don't create this kind of technology and have it be so successful throughout the world, to the point where you have people indoctrinated to say, I can only only know Apple, I can only deal with Apple products and not know that you're doing this. [00:04:55] They knew it. Whether it was a flaw, intentional, whatever, whether they're going to sell it somewhere or had plans for the future, I don't know. But I know they knew it. And this is a joke. It's not accountability at all. $5.20 what? $20 for each device? 20 bucks, give or take. [00:05:11] - Keep it. - Yeah, okay. Keep it. Okay. I can't even get an Uber Eats meal for that. For my family. When you add in all the fees, this is it's a joke. And it's just disgusting that this is what they do to us. And we are what we're trained to do is accept it. Okay? [00:05:26] I'll then swear under oath and I'll get my my Apple device. Then they'll reject some and reduce the claim. Silly. Yeah. Sharon is so right about this. And it also exists in a universe where Apple is supposed to be the company. That's all about your privacy, right? [00:05:42] That's one of the things that supposedly separates it from Android users. And there's a lot in the Apple universe that's about protecting you. You know, you'll see if you have an iPhone, you know, do you want to allow [00:05:57] this app to be able to track you? You know, that's an Apple native program that's asking you that question, and you're kind of thinking, well, isn't that cool that Apple asks me that question to kind of protect me from being tracked by whatever. Yeah, but the reality is that Apple themselves are up to any kinds of all [00:06:16] kinds of ways to essentially pursue invasive strategies, to know where we are, what we're saying, and all the rest. And then also with Sharon saying the lawyers do tend to make the most money in these deals because the end users, [00:06:32] there are so many of us that we end up with anywhere from 20 to $100 maybe, and the lawyers walk away with the lion's share. That doesn't mean that the lawyers are all bad. You need lawyers to just because of the way the country is set [00:06:48] up to bring companies to heel, often including Apple in this case. And even though, in my judgment, I agree with Sharon, this is a tepid result, I like the fact that the suit was brought, and I like the fact that Apple has to live with the headlines now, even if [00:07:04] they're not admitting to wrongdoing. The headlines are out there that Siri is listening. And even when you didn't ask Siri to listen. And that's something. It's the only way that we can bring these, these companies to account in some way. [00:07:20] But again, yes, to to Sharon's point and to the point that you've made Yaz as well. This is tepid. This is this is a small amount of money. They, you know, they have this kind of money on them. So for them, it's an easy check to write. Yeah. - And I can. - Admit that Mark's right. [00:07:37] I'll just say this quickly that we do need lawyers. All but one. I'll say all but one. Okay. You don't need him. Not a good one, anyway. - It was the. - Tea. Sharon. Sharon. Sharon. That's a whole nother show. We need lawyers. All but one. But, you know, like I used to. Actually, I worked at Apple. [00:07:52] Can I say that? I feel like I'm giving you guys, like, my entire background. I know I've lived. I've lived many lives, but it was weird because at the time, you know, it was just a job that I did while I was in college. But the the Kool-Aid aspect of it was real, right? Like, you really felt that that that what we now know [00:08:10] to be a toxic corporate culture? We felt it. You know, this is your family. You know, you got to do this for the company, blah, blah, blah. And a lot of people really bought into it. I like to think that I did it because I was just there while I was in school. So I was like kind of emotionally separate from it. But and it was a good job to have back then, you know, as far as retail jobs go. [00:08:29] But it was interesting because toward the end of my time there, Apple was really starting to make a lot of headlines about how much money they were making. Right? They were buying islands. They were buying like all kinds of stuff. They had billions of dollars that they didn't seem to know what to do with. [00:08:44] And at the same time, our wages were, were, were not, you know, the new hires were getting hired on at lower wages than what we had been. And the raises were less and less because we kept getting told like, oh, there is no payroll, like the money isn't there or whatever, whatever. And then you're reading these headlines. [00:09:00] So I haven't been trusting Apple for maybe longer than most people, but here we are. But, you know, it's interesting because yes, to Mark's point, it is good that these headlines are out and that we're talking about these stories [00:09:15] and that we're getting, you know, some kind of clarity on, you know, we're we're all we're just being gaslit for so long saying like, I feel like my phone's listening to me and they're like, no, it doesn't do that. You know, and people have their Amazon echos and, what's her name? Alexa in their house. I don't have an Alexa. [00:09:31] I don't trust her either. But, you know, it feels nice to have that validation that we're not all crazy. And, you know, John Iadarola, he always makes fun of me because I always tell him that I don't like the future. I don't I don't like future stuff. This is what I'm talking about. I don't want it. I want to go back to Lord of the rings time. [00:09:46] So thanks for watching The Young Turks. 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