Sina Science and Technology News on the evening of September 2, Beijing time, it is reported that US District Court Judge Geoffrey White (Jeffrey White) ruled today that it is allowed to targetAppleA lawsuit against the company continues, which claims that Apple IncSiri, a voice assistant, violated users' privacy but dismissed a complaint under California's unfair Competition Act.
Judge White said the plaintiffs had fully demonstrated that when users neither intended nor wanted Siri to "monitor" and record voice conversations, their privacy was violated by "accidental activation of Siri". But White also pointed out that the lawsuit did not show the necessary economic damage to support an allegation under the unfair Competition Law that Apple Inc fraudulently marketed his voice assistant.
In February, White rejected the class action lawsuit brought by consumers, claiming that the plaintiffs did not fully prove that their communications were intercepted by Siri when claiming that Apple Inc violated privacy. But at the same time, White also gave the plaintiff the opportunity to refile the lawsuit. White said today that in the revised indictment, the plaintiff fully proved that his privacy had been violated.
The lawsuit accuses Apple Inc's voice assistant Siri of eavesdropping on user conversations in violation of federal and state privacy laws. Despite Apple Inc's assurances, Siri sometimes eavesdropped on conversations outside the active listening mode, the plaintiffs said. In addition, a small number of intentional or unintentional Siri recordings were sent to third-party contractors for evaluation. Therefore, Apple Inc may have some knowledge of some private discussions, confidential commercial transactions, and so on.
The plaintiffs put forward two theories of damage: Apple Inc disclosed their private information without consent, and suffered economic damage. They paid high fees for Apple Inc's equipment, and not all of them got benefits.
Except for Apple Inc SiriAmazonAlexa and Google Assistant have received similar complaints. A common complaint is that even if the user does not press the button or use the default voice command, these devices will monitor the user, causing various conversations to be recorded.
