Apple has agreed to pay $95m (£77m) to settle a court case that claimed some of its devices eavesdropped on people without their permission.

The tech giant has been accused of eavesdropping on its customers through its virtual assistant Siri, according to the BBC.

The plaintiffs also allege that the voice recordings were shared with advertisers.

Apple, which has not admitted any wrongdoing, has been approached for comment.

In the preliminary settlement, the tech company denies any wrongdoing, as well as allegations that “recorded, disclosed to third parties, or failed to delete conversations recorded as a result of enabling Siri» without users’ consent.

Apple’s lawyers also say they will confirm that “permanently deleted individual Siri recordings collected by Apple before October 2019».

But the plaintiffs allege that the tech company recorded people who activated the virtual assistant unintentionally, that is, without using the phrase “Hey, Siri” to wake it up.

They add that advertisers who received those records could then search for keywords in them to better target ads.

Lead plaintiff Fumiko Lopez claims she and her daughter were recorded without their consent.

They claim they were served targeted ads after talking about products like Air Jordans.

Class action

Apple has proposed February 14 as a decision date in the Northern California court.

Class actions are operated by a small number of individuals suing on behalf of a larger group.

If successful, the money won is paid to all claimants.

According to the court documents, each plaintiff – who must be based in the US – could be paid up to $20 per Siri-enabled device they owned between 2014 and 2019.

In that case, the attorneys could get 30 percent of the fee plus costs — amounting to just under $30 million.

By settling, Apple not only denies wrongdoing, but also avoids the risk of facing a new court case that could potentially mean a much larger payout.

The California company earned $94.9 billion in the quarter to September 28, 2024.

Apple has been embroiled in a number of class action lawsuits in recent years.

In January 2024, it began paying off a $500 million lawsuit that claimed it was intentionally delaying iPhones in the US.

In March, it agreed to pay $490 million in a class action led by Norfolk County Council in the UK.

And in November, consumer group Which? launched a class-action lawsuit against Apple, accusing it of ripping off customers through its iCloud service.

The same law firm is suing Google in a similar class action, accusing it of eavesdropping on customers who use Google apps.

That lawsuit is currently in the same court in Northern California.