Class Action Settlement Announced in Apple Siri Eavesdropping Case

You COULD get $100 as a member of the class, if approved.
www.lehtoslaw.com

[@caliconfessions1075]

They made billions and they were fined millions! That will teach them!!!

[@DaveBigDawg]

And just imagine how much the lawyers are going to get versus the people Lawyers 90 million People 5 million

[@GrantWaller.-hf6jn]

They settled for that amount. 1.5 Billion if they lost in court. No admission to guilt as well.

[@Sondan1988]

Calicon thank you !!! I would gladly take a $100,000 fine if I made over $10,000,000 breaking the law.

[@patrickjordan2233]

This has been the underlying American business model For many Decades, Actuaries & Accountants will run Worst-case/Best-case, and it has all too often = "let's do it!" ...

[@leehype]

It's called business tax.

[@JasonWardStudios]

1950's: Don't say that! There could be a wire tap in the room! 2020's: Hey wire tap! How do I grill perfect salmon?

[@johnshaw6702]

Nailed it in one. 😂😂😂

[@Unsensitive]

I don't understand how this doesn't violate wiretapping laws, not just privacy. Since companies are apparently people, perhaps they should be sent to prison.

[@stephanreiken9912]

They settle for 0.1% of the money they made, lawyers get 90% of it, you get rejected for the 2$ they offer you as recompense

[@BCNeil]

or they send an oversized check, that won't work with an ATM. Forcing you to lineup in the bank and use a teller. For your dollar.

[@greggweber9967]

Were they your lawyers or working together with their lawyers to split the fees?

[@0m3GAARS3NAL]

they didn't go to trial it was settled, the lawyers will take a chunk but it isn't going to be the same as if they went to trial

[@davidd6660]

Cost of doing business. Everyone knows. I don't get why Americans aren't pissed off.

[@dmurf4156]

The system is a joke!

[@ibex485]

Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

[@TheLuceon]

What about non Apple owners who had been eavesdropped on because they were near someone with an Apple Siri product?

[@hughmccurdy3348]

While that may seem silly, there was a lawsuit where I only vaguely remember details. A college sports coach accidentally dialed his phone and the person on the other end heard a conversation that was with his wife. The person hearing the call took advantage of the information. The couple sued for some sort of invasion of privacy. He lost because he accidentally did make the call. She won.

[@codemiesterbeats]

Second hand eavesdropping. Seriously though.

[@srt1749]

Just think of the havoc that you COULD have caused had you been aware of it!

[@natebyars2439]

or called someone who had an iphone

[@puretoronto]

It’s ok, they are android users and Google is open about eavesdropping and selling your data. It’s literally thier business model.

[@Yumi_Jay]

Remember the Apple commercial that they made back during the 1984 Super Bowl parodying the Big Brother scene from "1984." The irony.

[@rhymeswithorange6092]

They changed sides since then

[@billfusionenterprise]

welcome to the greed factor. "executive suite" movie

[@RetNemmoc555]

Yes, and I also remember when Google's motto used to be "Don't be Evil."

[@brentfarvors192]

Commercial wasn't meant to be fictional; They were telling you exactly what the new world order had planned; And, continues pushing toward...

[@n.a.2156]

Remember that Apple exemplifies - and actively employs - this age-old tactic: Always accuse your competition of what you are already doing.

[@AeroGuy07]

I was at an AirBNB in Phoenix in 2023, watching a live stream on KZbin. During the stream one of the hosts said, loudly, "hey Alexa" and the Alexa device in the AirBNB lit up and said "hi, how can I help you?" I had no idea there was an Alexa in the house and that voice scared the hell out of me!

[@machintelligence]

So now they are talking to each other.

[@coldlogic800]

And your hosts were recording everything lol

[@SirReptitious]

You should be a lot more worried about all the hidden cameras in Air BnBs than an alexa...

[@AeroGuy07]

@coldlogic800 not after I unplugged it!

[@NearlyFullyFree]

Witnessed similar with a Google assistant device. It was it another room, situated furthest away from the dining room I was in having a meal. It was playing loud music, which makes it near impossible to give instructions to, (like change music, or turn off or turn down volume, etc). I was speaking very lowly to my girlfriend seated directly in front of me, when the assistant suddenly lowered the sound to nothing and then spoke in a very strange voice, making a rude dismissal reply to what I said to my girlfriend. She was also stunned. Proves it is always listening

[@motorcitywestauto4674]

I was making a point about this with a co worker about 10 years ago. I started randomly talking about camping-something I rarely if ever have talked about- and the ads on Facebook all the sudden turned to camping accessories. Can't write that off to coincidence.

[@nolongeramused8135]

A friend of my wife was visiting from Spain. While she was visiting they had to go to the supermarket to get some apple cider vinegar, which apparently isn't a thing in Spain. Within an hour she was getting ads for apple cider vinegar, in English, on all her social media and search engines.

[@motorcitywestauto4674]

@nolongeramused8135 It's almost unavoidable now. I unplug the Alexa when we're not using it, I got rid of our newer cars and we daily drive classic cars (mine is actually 59 years old) but it's not reasonable to turn your fone off. It's just a little disturbing and I proved it was happening 10 years ago. How much worse is it now?

[@VeginMatt]

2 years ago I'm on my parents computer, which is synced to my moms phone, and my mom is on speakerphone talking to someone else. We start talking about a house we had seen that day being built with an outdoor elevator...........I start getting ads for 2-3 story elevators!! I can guarantee I've never looked up house elevators in my life, chairlifts I'd understand but this was too on the nose.

[@ChrisS-oo6fl]

You don’t even have to talk to it. The ads coincide with conversations just from things like Fire Tv and TV platforms whom aren’t even supposed to be listening for a wake word.

[@motorcitywestauto4674]

@ChrisS-oo6fl Kinda 1984-ish creepy isn't it?

[@McMillanScottish]

"Right now, your toaster is listening to you…" No, because my toaster is from 1965. It has coils, that's it. Best toast ever.

[@merlesgarage]

And what do you suppose audio transmission antennas are made of??? Yep, coils of wire! Steve IS right, again! 😂😂😂

[@BlackJesus8463]

@@merlesgarage It's like the power grid is one big radio.

[@earldesuba9109]

Are you sure?

[@niteshades_promise]

my toaster is the griddle i make eggs on. 😂 🍻

[@merlesgarage]

@@niteshades_promise um...flat panel antennas are a real thing... hmm??? Maybe your griddle IS eavesdropping. 🤣🤣🤣

[@chuckbuckets1]

I am a contractor and for years now every time I go to a certain clients house my YT feed will have videos related to our conversation. These conversations were often about extremely niche topics, no way it is coincidence, been going on for years. I would estimate at least 100 times. I do not carry a cell phone, they use apple products.

[@NearlyFullyFree]

Check if Google is turned on in your phone. I was having things on my KZbin coming up that had only been mentioned once. The most convincing to confirm the phone was listening was a specific and very unusual small building work idea my girlfriend mentioned just once to me. I was in a hurry, so just agreed it was a good idea and left her house to later that day discover on my KZbin a video coming up showing builders in England doing exact same task. So her just saying a couple of sentences describing an unusual work idea was absorbed by my phone. Discovered it was Google on my iPhone. (Siri was turned off)

[@HH-ru4bj]

3:00 my brother tried telling me I was wrong about that too, he said they could get in trouble for, as if that's ever stopped anyone from breaking the law to make money.

[@eighthave]

I get more freaked out when I see ads for something I only thought about and never said anything out loud.

[@builtontherockhomestead9390]

Church secretary has an Alexa in her office. Someone named their kid Alexa. I work in the church nursery. We can't mention the toddler in her office.

[@matthewjanssen7957]

You can change the wake word to "computer", but don't ask me how.

[@darthdaddy6983]

Nick name the child Siri

[@ferretyluv]

I’ve taught a kid named Alexa. I don’t know what the family was thinking.

[@builtontherockhomestead9390]

@ferretyluv The Alexa I care for is 2. I also question their decision too.

[@melkiorwiseman5234]

I'd assume that to change the wake-up name, you'd just ask Alexa how to change it. 😃 "Hey, Alexa, I'd like to change your name" "What name would you like to give me?" "I'd like your name to be boofhead." "My name is now boofhead." 🤣

[@davidstebbins4217]

I have used Android phones (Samsung Galaxy) for years. I first discovered what you talked about a while ago - I was having a conversation with a friend about going to Japan, and I was inundated with ads for flights to Japan (didn't even do a search on the phone; it was just on the table listening). This has happened many times.

[@nolongeramused8135]

I mentioned wanting to learn play the piano in a conversation with my wife and her friend in a coffee shop - guess what was pushed to me on Amazon the next time I logged in?

[@ChrisS-oo6fl]

My family started writing each incident and in one summer recorded 67 different ads resulting from extremely unique private conversations including when the phones or other “wake word” listening devices where not in the room.

[@michaellowe3665]

If it has a microphone, it is listening. If it has a camera, it is watching. Why would anyone believe that they dont use the information they can easily collect? If it can react to an activation word, obviously, it is always listening. Remember when the RIAA paid out a class action suit for price gouging, and they stopped doing it immediately afterward? Yea, they did not. That was just their way of informing the public that they did it and will continue.

[@Bob-Lob-Law]

. ALLOW . ALLOW JUST ONCE . DO NOT ALLOW . NEVER ALLOW

[@GrantWaller.-hf6jn]

Not true to big business. Your statement is exactly why I stopped XM radio.

[@the-tribe]

Nice Haiku...

[@vashmatrix5769]

Today, I read "All - free & clear" off my grocery list & then got an ad for it on my phone. I use the cheapest Samsung.

[@solandri69]

Computers have long since gotten fast enough that voice recognition can be handled locally. My car (using the built-in navigation) does it just fine. The companies just insist on transmitting your voice clip back to their servers for voice recognition, so they can collect more data about you to sell.

[@Mountain-Man-3000]

It was controversial back in the day when Siri and Google Assistant added voice activation for this exact reason. Everyone chose to forget about that though because people love convenience...

[@jayjaynella4539]

People love convenience even at the loss of privacy and exposing their intimate details to evil people [advertisers].

[@FarckewVerimucc]

People would sell their souls for comfort and convenience.

[@mekaerwin7187]

@@FarckewVerimucc I'd change "would" to "do"

[@FarckewVerimucc]

@@mekaerwin7187 right you are.

[@ChrisS-oo6fl]

@@jayjaynella4539not everyone. People like my self gave extremely powerful and advanced smart homes that are totally local by “hacking” every device and flashing them with custom firmware detaching then from the cloud. We even have locally ran assistants now that listen 24/7 but aren’t connected to the outside world. The only one whom can collect the data is ourselves. Unfortunately our phones and TV’s are still the weak link.

[@thatjeff7550]

"The toaster is listening to me..." That's nice. I haven't had anyone to talk to. LOL

[@lisadees71]

😂😂

[@johnshaw6702]

Maybe I should buy a toaster. 🤔😂😂😂

[@DesertJoe]

You'd be amazed to learn how far the eavesdropping technology has come since then. Nowadays, all you have to do is *think* about a product or service and you start getting targeted advertisements. What a time to be alive! 🤣🤣

[@ImARealHumanPerson]

* Turns off Siri "Hey Siri" "You currently have me disabled" - Siri

[@CrankyBeach]

I was at a friend's house, chatting in the kitchen. She showed me a kitchen gadget I hadn't seen before. She never named the thing, AND my phone was in my purse in another room. Guess what product's ads soon flooded my Facebook feed? Maybe there's something to the paranoia joke.... "Of course you aren't being monitored," said the coffee maker.

[@ryanlukens9280]

I have had this happen with both android and Apple products. Frankly, I’m surprised it took this long for something like this to come through.

[@BCNeil]

Wait people didn't know this was happening to them??

[@PigVirusNBC]

I wanna say there is no way you can do that with Siri as when you go to set up your phone and set up Siri there’s two questions I ask you yes or no to share your recordings with Apple however, I’ve never tested it and I am an IT professional to say no and see what happens. I will be tested out of my next new phone

[@GeorgeWashingtonLaserMusket]

Let me guess. It amounts to about $20 per victim that was spied on. Meanwhile, companies like Google make $13 to $14 a month (per user) according to the statistic I read three or four years ago, and it's probably more now.

[@mikereid1195]

Minor cost of doing business, ofc

[@stephanreiken9912]

Probably not, as stated they will give more, or 'less'' depending on the number of claims. They will claim there is more.

[@mxslick50]

@@stephanreiken9912 Nope, each victim will end up with $2 or less. Lawyers will end up being paid out of the settlement, leaving very little after their fees.

[@chrisduda1974rr]

when are they going to go after Facebook for this? i swear i mention something to standing next to me with my phone in my pocket, the next day im getting ads through Facebook

[@DaveBigDawg]

Right, along with Google, Android

[@trumpetmom8924]

Facebook has its own set of intrusions. Such as tracking your location in the app even when you have location services turned off for the app on your phone. After my husband (who works in IT) read an article about it, I removed ALL Meta apps from my phone (Facebook app, FB Messenger, Instagram).

[@maxnoe3079]

That’s because Apple is selling the information to Facebook. Facebook will just say they bought information legally. They didn’t know Apple was getting it “accidentally.”

[@vickidemarco2076]

You tube as well

[@loganlampkin6506]

I tested this once intentionally. I talked about dog toys around my android a few years ago. I didn't text or search anything. I then went to a Wikipedia page and other web pages and there were all sorts of ads for dog toys. Absolutely crazy. I'm still very mad at that to this day. Who knows what ideas or information they stole from me. We have no freedom

[@josefmazzeo6628]

One time my girlfriend told me I don't listen to her - well, then I told her talk to Siri, she listens to everyone.

[@TheLakingc]

That happened to me, too. When i yelled at my kid, my tablet answered it couldn"t help me with that! I shut off everything. Now i am fighting with my truck about who's driving! I keep trying to shut off all of the tracking and voice, but it keeps coming back on. It has caused so many near misses, i am afraid to drive it!

[@techdiyer5290]

That itself should be a lawsuit. Didnt a bunch of car companies have ads scaring peoplee about how forcing them to allow third parties to fix vehicles would be "unsecure" they should get sued on that basis as well. They ADVERTISED how horrible their security is

[@jilbertb]

​@@techdiyer5290I bet there is some IT Guru that has posted a video on YT on how to do this...

[@justinbrunje7932]

There is a reason i own 3 vehicles and none of which are newer than 2002. No tracking, no listening and I'm the only one driving.

[@pburgvenom]

mine were from PHONE calls: Example I was talking to a friend about a Kawasaki KX80 motorcycle, words I have not spoken since the early 1980’s… Boom… I got ads everywhere for Kawasaki KX80s…

[@jimhunt1592]

I did some piecework for a digital company where they gave us conversations to transcribe and compare to the AI transcripts of the same conversation. These were mostly short conversations rather than search or information requests. I quit because they threatened to sue anyone who published about our transcription work which changed it from slightly to very creepy.

[@mercoid]

You just published it.

[@jimhunt1592]

@@mercoid Really? What is the name of the company?

[@TheMadManPlace]

Big Brother *IS* watching...

[@charlessmith1562]

And listening

[@johnshaw6702]

There was a NSA research program decades ago to see if they could use the old CRT TV to watch and listen to you. Today it would he easy to do. A modern TV, just like cell phones, are just computers with applications running on it.

[@nicholasgeorge4156]

I’ve never used Siri ever. It does what I can just do for myself. Unless there’s some features I’m missing out on. But setting reminders, timers, grocery lists, or whatever else I can do on my own. That’s stuff I should look to see it’s done right anyway. So why not just do it.

[@casadilla111]

There’s that old quote “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Cases like this have and will continue to prove that it’s no longer even about safety, we’re being tracked in everything we do in return for a few mere seconds of convenience.

[@ExestentialCrisis]

Same! Daughter has one in EVERY room of her apartment and thinks its the best thing ever. 😢

[@ChrisS-oo6fl]

If your setting them on your own hand held devices that data is still being collected. This is especially true of you had apps like FB and messenger on your phone. They collected data on everything including your reminders and even your phone’s messaging system and internet browsing history/ habits. If your using a smart TV or streaming device to watch this KZbin channel on the Tv then it’s irrelevant if you use an Alexa or not. Those devices do the same thing, including ones without a “wake word” in many instance your Tv remote is doing the listening. You probably just haven’t noticed the targeted ads. But for many people with smart homes Alex is extremely convenient. That’s why we now have good open source solutions to replace those devices with locally controlled systems free from outside connections. We also flash all our smart devices with custom local controlled firmware free from the cloud. Unfortunately even more and more alleged “non smart” devices have data collection capabilities. Regardless your phone is sharing everything about you. Location, sleep habits, etc. since 2018 your internet service provider has been legally selling all your data too when Congress passed legislation signed by the then president and now newly elected president. That information is more comprehensive then most people can grasp.

[@otherwiseunarmed4187]

relax, it's nothing nefarious, they're just listening, for ''sh_ts and giggles''

[@nursejim2129]

While listening to this video Siri activated

[@timduncan6750]

You must sound a lot like Steve because Siri knows your voice so it won’t respond to other people trying to use it.

[@28ebdh3udnav]

Drinking game, take a 🥃 every time you hear "Accidently"

[@JC_Musician]

I can attest that I can be listening to blaring music in my car and casually say, “Hey Siri” and the music will mute and Siri will respond 🤯

[@srt1749]

SIRI (along with "Hey GOOGLE") IS the quintessential stalker.

[@BuzzKiller23]

"Apple could have been liable to pay $1.5 billion," but this is america where we reward companies that take advantage of their customers.

[@rustybarnes4207]

A family member was telling me about how she had to use a translator app for a patient that spoke a language from burma and later that night i was getting ads from my state health department in that language

[@srt1749]

There ya go. It's state sponsored.

[@NeedmoreVodkaASAP]

Seen this coming 10 miles away

[@preshisify]

Yep

[@srt1749]

Now you're going to get ads for EVERYTHING ten miles away

[@preshisify]

@@srt1749 🤣🤣🤣

[@NeedmoreVodkaASAP]

@@srt1749 XD

[@preshisify]

My mom would be talking in her house, and goigle would pop up and say, i can help you with that, and she would turn around and say, i wasnt talking to you!!! *sigh* another time i was talking with a friend over coffee, and the phone , on the table,like a third person in the room, popped up with "want to scold anyone else?!?!?!" in response

[@dont.listen.to.me.]

I realized this in 2016 when I joked about buying a money counter. I got back in my car and checked face book and had ads for money counters..

[@markkeyser]

So often my wife will be shopping for some item on her computer and the search results show up as ads on my computer.

[@srt1749]

That's because, as she will likely attest, you don't listen to her!

[@BrianButterworth-s4z]

Computers on the same network

[@ncdogg425]

Apple: it's the cost of doing business. It's peanuts🥜

[@erockromulan9329]

Steve, no joke, I was watching this video on full volume while cooking dinner and at about 2:35 Siri on my Apple IPhone started talking about setting or something.

[@Zamiroh]

95 million... lol... law firm will take their 40% plus expenses. The class reps may get a little. The rest will likely go into some fund to help some random program or foundation etc. No one will receive a dime.

[@Michman2024]

$95 million. WOW!!!! That's about $0.84 per.

[@DarkPesco]

I got ads related to stuff I had discussed but never searched on my Android but that's been about a year ago and earlier. I guess they saw the writing on the wall from the Apple lawsuit and preemptively stopped this practice.

[@My-Pal-Hal]

SO WHAT YOU'RE SAYING,.. Is there will be a Terms Of Service Update real soon 😂 .... time to find that ONE Extra Hidden Word 🤣

[@martymart42]

7:36 KZbin did the same thing to me. I was talking to a friend I hadn't seen in 20 years face-to-face in his home in Florida and all I said was yeah I don't drink as much as I used to. I'm driving to my hotel cuz I was there for business on my way to the hotel I'm listening to KZbin I see a bunch of videos talking about how to quit drinking or what drinking does all type of videos. I called my buddy up and told him what was happening. He was like I know man this stuff is crazy.

[@tombombadil3185]

Now for a class action suit against google. On many occasions I have mentioned something on my flip phone and within 24 hours I get an add for it on utube.

[@yohannwilkerson6058]

Facebook did this too, but they *said* that they quit listening. Scout GPS still does it AFAIK, so if you are pairing your phone to your car's infotainment system, you may have it listening as well. I figure that Google and Amazon probably bleed off their received audio to advertisers or their respective AI's too.

[@sarchizm]

Meanwhile every time Steve said Siri she responded lol!

[@timduncan6750]

Siri knows your voice so unless you sound like Steve it wouldn’t activate hearing him say it.

[@sarchizm]

@@timduncan6750 Yes it's supposed to know my voice. I did train it to do so, but others say SIRI and occasionally she asks WHAT??? Steve's voice works!

[@maracrochet]

🦋 My dad and my uncle were having a conversation and my dad said ' I should give Mara a call' next thing he knew he heard my voice from the other room😂 turns out his cell called me 😅 🦋

[@MondosBongos]

The wife & I were out buying a new grill - the salesman left to get one from the back room - while we were waiting in the outdoor section, we talked about the porch gliders on display - when I got home and opened FB, there was an ad for porch gliders near the top - we both felt violated and spied on, disgusting, sneaky, money-grubbing cheats! - what can you do?

[@ebr-fan1117]

I had my android phone and Google maps navigation change a specific and specialized destination in mid-navigation and subsequently take me to another of the same type of location based entirely on either eavesdropping on my conversation or texts. The incident made me a believer.

[@TheBozeman33]

Widely reported?? I'm just hearing about it

[@larrykent196]

Absolutely, my wife and I noticed that too, so we tried stuff we would never need or want and bam it showed up. What a shame this happened. The payout and settlement is nothing but a coward's way out. They next time need to be very costly.

[@jdrmanmusiqking]

Evil does as its thing and gets a slap on the wrist SMH

[@RichardPyne]

Nothing accidental about it. Google does the same thing.

[@roxcyn]

The Google AI assistant and Siri assistant can be shut off in the settings. That's what I did as I was talking to someone about the weather which I think it was during summer and I said scorcher and Siri activated. Same with Google - say anything that sounds like Hey Google or Google and it listens. I'd rather press and hold the home button to activate rather than have them listening.

[@QMorrissey]

This is also happening to us who have androids.

[@jonphinney4065]

About a year ago me and my wife were talking about how I need new windows for my house next thing. You know, we're getting all kinds of ADS for companies that install windows. Imagine that.

[@danb.5779]

Around 2014 I was talking to a coworker about her newborn -- within minutes and for several days after I started seeing ads on facebook for diapers and cribs. Facebook was on record around that time that they were not listening in and that their predictive algorithm was just that good... so good that it was showing a single guy diaper ads out of the blue... Until there is a genuinely significant penalty for this sort of behavior, nothing's going to change.

[@rhymeswithorange6092]

Now do Facebook, Amazon and Google. Can't tell you how many times I've talked to someone about something or other, and then start getting ads for it. I only notice it when it is something unusual, a specific old movie, a musical instrument that I don't own or ever search for, etc. Or my son tells me about a video he thinks I should check out, and next time I open KZbin it shows up in the recommended videos.

[@marsovac]

They all sell ad data between themselves. Doesn't matter who listened, they will all get it.

[@Khalifrio]

The only people who win in class action lawsuits are the Lawyers. Everyone else gets something like 59 cents and a coupon.

[@1014p]

Pretty much and can never sue the company again unless you write in to retain the right.

[@dtcdtc8328]

The people will get $1.33 and the lawyers who weren't affected by this will get $33 Million each....

[@georgebooth2505]

I'm betting that the Attorney's get $65 million! That leaves us pennies... 😱😬🤬

[@christopherg2347]

The lawyers had to fight this for 6 years and incurred the costs for that

[@dtcdtc8328]

@christopherg2347 yes sir and their time and cost is worth 10s of Millions lol gotcha Aren't 99% of "representatives" lawyers too? Boy, where would the world be without em

[@christopherg2347]

@@dtcdtc8328 Nobody would take up class action lawsuits and the companies never loose anything for their misdeeds. No idea why you think that world would be better.

[@darksahde]

Why every time these kinds of lawsuit get settled, i ve heard similar story time and time again, every time is the same, "settled" "settled". Not a single one gets anything. Because they don't want to get buried in legal fees? Why not ask for legal fee in the complaint? I know normally you have to pay your own legal fee, but I remember Steve said you can ask for legal fee as damage in some cases, not sure if this qualifies, is it really that hard just because the legals fees?

[@Dan.50]

Steal a BILLION and get fined a million? That's cruel and unusual punishment! Save our oligarchs!

[@Troy_Built]

I'm thinking they really settled to avoid Discovery.

[@tedbear631]

Hey Steve could you follow up with this story when the site goes live for peeps who are interested. Thanks for sharing this one.

[@Artanis1000]

Had this happen numerous times with my iPhones. Sitting poolside with some friends on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Some of the guys were smoking cigars. I declined on since I quit them many years earlier. When I got home, there were cigar ads on my PC. Another time it happened with car tires on my office PC. Sick stuff.

[@MannyBrum]

I think a lot of it has to do with when something is on your mind you notice it more. It's just like when you get a new car and then it seems that everyone else is driving the same car. It's not because everyone went out and bought the same car, you just didn't notice them before you decided to get that car. There have been people who tried to get devices to show them ads for certain products by talking around them when the voice assistant wasn't activated to prove they're always listening and it doesn't work. Don't forget your usage across devices is also collected so something you searched for on the PC might trigger an ad on your phone.

[@donaldhollingsworth3875]

A lot of kitchen appliances use WI-FI to operate & for repair or maintenance intervals.

[@c.c.9539]

oh so the lawyers won again

[@peasterday]

Several years ago I bought a brand new 55" Samsung smart tv with all the bells & whistles. A co-worker asked me if I knew that it listened and possibly recorded my speech in my own home. I didn't believe it possible but after looking into it I found out he was right. It's all in the micro print legalese of the TOS or whatever. Now I just assume even the toaster is listening.

[@gregorythomas333]

The word smart is an acronym S.M.A.R.T. which stands for: Self Monitoring And REPORTING Technology. You have to ask yourself "Just who is it reporting all your data to?" I actually installed a physical micro-switch on my phone that directly disables the microphone. Haven't had any incidents of eavesdropping...aka coincidental advertisements...from it since. Ben is up at bat today :)

[@tonyr1950]

It’s happened to me. We have no privacy.

[@johanlaurasia]

There's a guy who has an android device who made a video about this, and he spends a few minutes talking about dog treats, and sure enough, he opens his phone, and there are dog treats ads.

[@houdininfo6336]

My family use to play a game where we randomly grab the name of a product that nobody in the family used or had interest in. We never said the word out loud, we wrote it down on a piece of paper. Once everyone agreed on the word, while sitting at the dinner table with our phones turned off next to our plate, we all started to use sentences containing the word for 5 minutes. Most of the fun was thinking of crazy ways to use the word in a sentence. The game was, whoever’s phone gave them the ad first after talking about it for five minutes would win. Surprisingly, the people who won the most were the ones that spent the least amount of time on their phone, especially doing social media. I am not sure how that plays into the algorithm. By the way, I’ve told other people about this game before, and they went and played it at home and got the same results.

[@buydirectusa4954]

Agree about them listening on other devices. Have seen it myself with ads

[@kmatch1]

My case was a couple weeks ago. I asked my wife where some cartridges were for a lable maker. I haven’t looked these up or ordered them in years. A few minutes later an ad popped up for these cartridges. I have siri turned off on all devices.

[@pjp_renaissance]

It literally just happened yesterday where my dad replied to my mom sarcastically "Thank you" and without missing a beat Siri responded "You're welcome"

[@preshisify]

Thank you

[@robertthompson3447]

Just the other day I mentioned the truck stop Flying J. Minutes later, while watching TV, on an Internet connected device, I saw an ad for the Flying J truck stop. 😅

[@larrykent196]

Thanks Steve great subject.

[@hellsfirefreedomtube6984]

Corporations like Apple needs to be held accountable to the Constitution so not to infringe upon customers rights

[@anonymousanonymous-tw3wm]

KZbin does it too ! Last week.. I was having a conversation with my friend over the phone (Samsung device) about a very specific topic and boom the topic showed up numerous times in my recommended videos !

[@frankdeboer1347]

That's not even pennies on the dollar of their advertising profits.

[@platty9237]

It’s nice to see these tech companies held accountable - by what’s essentially less than a slap on the wrist.

[@jayjaynella4539]

Don't forget that the settlement and its associated "costs" is also a tax deduction for apple.

[@bigj231]

A disappointed glance is a better analogy

[@asheshchokhawala8214]

Who is the toaster talking to? Might be the washing machine. It uses 3 GB everyday. 😂

[@gFamWeb]

I'm commenting before watching, but I do want to say that (afaik) this lawsuit was over contractors who listened to the audio of accidental captures, not a systematic ad network.

[@cj90014]

I so agree with Steve. Years ago I expressed concern over ads and pop-ups saying, example, it is 26 mins to a bar I drink at. I would say, this is scary. What is going on? Everyone said "you are already drunk" Well, time has passed and I guess I was not crazy. Steve, you should talk about cars and the cameras and microphones the have INSIDE the car.

[@matthewholmquist3871]

By definition, any voice activated product would need to constantly listen to be able to respond. Once my wife decided to get a smart home assistant, we gave up on the notion of privacy in our home. :)

[@tonyphillips910]

@2:03: "Specifical." Steve's digging into archaic English! 🤣

[@Savant218]

So let me get this right - lawyers make tens of thousands people in suit make 20 bucks each apple / slap on wrist Yea, sounds like typical court in America ! THAT'S AMERICAN JUSTICE and you get screwed again.

[@isaaco5679]

I don't use these things but I've had the same experience with saying that I needed to recharge my wife's car ac, got home and opened youtube to find 3 how to recharge ac videos at the top of my feed. Unlock the developer settings for your phone and turn off everything!

[@heraldofvati2123]

It does this all the time... but my phone shows me what my wife says and her phone shows her things I say...

[@Gadgetman64]

We definitely have " ghosts in the machinery " now days