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Apple has agreed to pay $95 million (£77 million) to settle a court case alleging some of its devices listened to people without their permission.
The tech giant has been accused of listening to its customers through its virtual assistant Siri.
The plaintiffs also allege that voice recordings were shared with advertisers.
Apple, which has not admitted any wrongdoing, has been contacted for comment.
In the preliminary settlement, the tech company denies any wrongdoing and claims it “recorded, disclosed to third parties, or failed to delete recorded conversations following Siri activation” without consent.
Apple’s lawyers also say they will confirm that they “permanently deleted individual Siri audio recordings collected by Apple before October 2019.”
But the plaintiffs say the tech company recorded people who activated the virtual assistant unintentionally — without using the phrase “Hey, Siri” to wake it.
And they say advertisers who received the recordings could then search them for keywords to better target ads.
Class action
Apple has proposed a decision date of February 14 in court in Oakland, California.
Class actions work by a small number of people going to court on behalf of a larger group.
If they win their case, the money won is returned to all the plaintiffs.
According to court documents, each plaintiff – who must be based in the United States – could receive up to $20 per Siri-enabled device they owned between 2014 and 2019.
In this case, the lawyers could take 30% of the fees plus expenses, or just under $30 million.
By reaching a settlement, Apple not only denies any wrongdoing, but also avoids the risk of facing a lawsuit that could potentially result in much greater compensation.
The California-based company earned $94.9 billion in the three months to September 28, 2024.
Apple has been involved in a number of class action lawsuits in recent years,
In January 2024, the company began paying out a $500 million lawsuit that claimed it deliberately slowed down iPhones in the United States.
In March, it agreed to pay $490 million in a class-action lawsuit led by Norfolk County Council in the United Kingdom.
And in November, consumer group Which? has launched a class-action lawsuit against Apple, accusing it of ripping off customers through its iCloud service.
