Apple’s nightmare with lawsuits doesn’t seem to end anytime soon. Now, Apple is facing a legal challenge in France, as the French human rights NGO, Ligue des droits de l’Homme, has filed a lawsuit against Apple. The lawsuit filed in France accuses Apple of using Siri’s recording for deceptive marketing practices and violating user privacy by illegally collecting their personal data.
Apple faces fresh lawsuit in France accusing it of using Siri’s recording to violate privacy
Radio France and Le Monde first reported that the Ligue des droits de l’Homme filed the privacy lawsuit on February 13 after an ex-employee spoke out about Apple’s shady tactics. The former employee from France, Thomas Le Bonniec, shared evidence of Apple mass collecting Siri’s recordings without user consent.
It all started back in 2019 when Le Bonniec started working with a team at an Irish company, Globe Technical Services (GTS). The team, which had the task of improving Siri’s multilingual response, was “listening, transcribing, and tagging recordings triggered by Siri.” Additionally, the lawsuit filed in France details that Apple’s ex-employee’s job was to ensure the accuracy of Siri’s transcriptions.
He was also responsible for checking if the company’s virtual assistant accidentally recorded them. Speaking to Radio France, he said, “On the very first day, we were told we were going to work on recordings of people talking to their assistant Siri or on recordings captured without their knowledge when the machine was triggered by mistake.”
That’s not all; Le Bonniec added that some employees from his team had labeling duties. Apple required them to compare the keywords from Siri’s recordings and tag them with the user data. Radio France notes that the LDH’s lawsuit accuses Apple of misusing Siri. Plus, it violates GDPR rules related to data protection and informed consent.
Apple denies any wrongdoing
Furthermore, Apple maintained its innocence while addressing the lawsuit filed in France involving Siri. The tech giant talked to TechRadar about some changes it made in 2019. Those changes ensure that Siri complies with Apple’s privacy commitment.
The company further adds that it doesn’t retain audio recorded by Siri. More importantly, it says to have never used them for marketing and advertising purposes. Well, this isn’t the first time Apple has faced a privacy lawsuit. The tech giant recently agreed to pay $95 million last month to settle a similar privacy lawsuit filed in California.
