(NEXSTAR) — The deadline is nearing to submit a claim for a $95 million settlement related to accusations that Apple’s virtual assistant, Siri, was eavesdropping on users and sharing the collected data with other parties.
Although Apple denied any misconduct, stating to Nexstar that “Siri has been engineered to protect user privacy from the beginning,” the company agreed to settle the case with a substantial payment.
The deadline to claim your portion of the settlement is Wednesday, July 2, which means you only have a short window of time to apply.
Who qualifies for a Siri settlement payment?
According to the settlement site, eligibility requires having owned a Siri-capable Apple device between September 17, 2014, and December 31, 2024. During this period, your “confidential communications” must have been “collected by Apple and/or shared with third parties due to an unintended activation of Siri.”
You may have already received an email (which may have gone to your spam folder) or a postcard notifying you that you may qualify. Either correspondence will have an identification code and a confirmation code used to apply for a payout.
You can still file a claim online without an email or postcard.
How to submit a settlement claim
Codes provided via email or postcard can be entered into this online form.
If you believe you qualify but did not receive those codes, administrators say you can submit a new claim on the settlement website. There, you’ll be asked to fill out a form with your contact information and details about your device (or devices) that may be impacted.
For the latter, you’ll need to include the email address linked to the device and proof of purchase, like a receipt or an invoice. Without proof of purchase, you’ll need to provide the serial number and model for each device.
How much could you receive?
It depends on how many qualifying devices you have.
You can add up to five Siri-enabled Apple devices to your claim if you believe they were unintentionally activated during a conversation you meant to be confidential or private.
Qualifying Apple devices include:
- iPhones
- iPads
- Apple Watches
- MacBooks
- iMacs
- HomePods
- iPod touches
- Apple TVs
Settlement officials say you may receive up to $20 per qualifying Siri device, meaning at best, you could receive $100 (for five qualifying devices). The payout could increase or decrease based on the number of valid claims, however. Tens of millions of people may qualify for the settlement, Reuters previously reported.
When could you receive your payment?
If your claim is approved, and the settlement doesn’t face any delays, it could still be awhile before you receive your payment.
A final hearing is scheduled for August 1, according to the settlement website. Without delays, the earliest payments could be disbursed is later this year.
However, other recent class action lawsuit settlements show it could take even longer.
Two settlements reached in 2022 — one against Facebook, another against T-Mobile — didn’t start dispersing payments until this year.
