Judge says Apple can be sued for Siri’s recordings of users having sex, talking to Doctors, and more

At the time, Apple said that less than 1% of Siri’s daily activations were being sent to the contractors whose job was to determine whether Siri was activated on purpose or by accident. The firm also graded whether Siri responded appropriately to a user’s request or query. A small number of snippets were used to try and improve Siri’s diction.

One Siri user said that he was having a private conversation with his doctor about a “brand name surgical treatment” and soon received targeted ads for the procedure. Two other Siri users complained that conversations they had about “Air Jordan sneakers, Pit Viper sunglasses and ‘Olive Garden'” resulted in both receiving online ads for these specific brands.

Judge White wrote in his decision that “Apple faults plaintiffs for not alleging the contents of their communications, but the private setting alone is enough to show a reasonable expectation of privacy.” The judge added that the plaintiffs can claim that Apple violated the federal Wiretap Act, California’s privacy laws, and committed breach of contract. The judge did deny a claim made by the plaintiffs accusing Apple of unfair competition.

Besides having products mentioned to Siri end up being advertised on iPhone users’ phones, more serious privacy breaches occurred. Accidental activations of the digital assistant allowed those working for the third-party company grading Siri’s responses, to hear couples having sex. Conversations containing private medical information were also turned over to the third-party firm along with drug deals.

Siri tells users that “I respect your privacy” and only listen when being talked to

However, the current version of Apple’s Terms of Service states, “We may collect and store details of how you use our services, including search queries. This information may be used to improve the relevancy of results provided by our services. Except in limited instances to ensure quality of our services over the Internet, such information will not be associated with your IP address.