Does your iPhone listen to you? The question arises again at a time when Apple is the target of a collective action launched by two law firms at the beginning of the week. They accuse the company of having heard the knowledge of users using their Siri vocal assistant.
Listen that “it can constitute violations of European regulation on personal data (GDPR),” according to collective action, users who have not been informed and have not given their consent. Their goal is to help them obtain compensation.
The owners of an Apple device with Siri in the last 10 years are invited to join the complaint through the website dedicated Ecoutesabusives.fr. They have until the end of June to do it.
Formal notice
This collective action is linked to a case that began in 2019, when a French complainant revealed that Siri listened to users without their knowledge. After working for the subcontractor of a company as a data analyst, he was responsible for the transcription of recordings made through the voice assistant. Records that could be accidental, with devices that mistakenly listen to the word “Siri” trigger.
“What Apple has already recognized is that there are passive recordings that can be done. For example, for example, when your device has the impression of listening to the word Siri, but that has not necessarily said it, or simply a word that is approaching (…) these are quite common situations,” he said. In BFMTV Olivia Roche, partner of the Phaos law firm, at the origin of the initiative with that of the former leader of the Eelv Eelv Julien Bayou.
Apple would also have admitted that these recordings were used “to train” Siri, said the lawyer who emphasizes that this would be once again without user consent. In other words, to improve AI. And many people would be affected by these listening.
“Less than 0.2%” of Simi’s Simi and Made Applications of Siri
With this collective action, the two law firms hope to compensate for these users, with “at least the reimbursement of their Apple product.” Once the files are examined, at the end of June, they will launch “a formal warning and an attempt to conciliation” with Apple, Julien Bayou said to AFP. If he fails, “we will go to court,” he added.
This collective action is not the first against the Californian company. Last February, the Human Rights League filed a complaint against a report against Apple, accusing it of violating the privacy of users analyzing the conversations registered by Siri.
In January, the American giant agreed to pay $ 95 million to end the procedures of the US consumer who accused him of registering private conversations without his knowledge. An agreement that does not mean that Apple recognizes errors, as the company has proclaimed since August 2019. At that time, “less than 0.2%” of the audio recordings of the applications sent to Siri, with their transcripts, they were treated and preserved, according to Tim Cook’s group.
The company also recalls that it has returned to the optional Siri improvement program at that time, but also that it had stopped keeping accidental recordings. In other words, Apple only maintains audio recordings with Siri only with the user’s explicit agreement.
Source: BFM TV
