Apple Has Agreed to Pay $95M for Violating Your Privacy
They Value Your Privacy at $20 Per Device. Do You?
Apple has agreed to pay a $95 million settlement for data leaks involving its in-house voice assistant Siri.
For a decade, Siri allegedly eavesdropped on users—triggered by sounds as innocent as a zipper—and shared private conversations with advertisers. The advertisers then fed you a steady diet of targeted ads for products you’d just talked about with friends or family members.
Yes, the self-anointed champion of privacy, whose CEO Tim Cook famously said that “privacy is a fundamental right,” has some explaining to do.
But, they’re not alone. Google faces a similar lawsuit, reinforcing that the tech giants we trust with our lives aren’t always living up to their promises.
These legal cases spotlight how little value these companies—and even we—place on our privacy.
If Siri’s settlement has you outraged, ask yourself: when was the last time you skipped reading a Terms of Service?
Privacy Is a Currency We Spend Without Thinking
Every “Allow” you click is an IOU written against your privacy.
When apps ask for access to your camera, microphone, or location, we often oblige without batting an eye.
Why?
Because we crave the convenience, entertainment, or efficiency they promise. In exchange, we hand over slivers of ourselves—our habits, preferences, and whereabouts.
It’s a silent tradeoff we make daily, even as companies hoard our data to sell, train AI, and perfect their marketing.
We’re selling ourselves short. Literally.
$20 for Your Soul?
Through this latest settlement, you’ll get a whopping $20 per device if it’s determined that you were one of the affected users.
That’s already insulting. But then, you factor in the headache of filing for it. Most people won’t bother, leaving millions unclaimed.
Even if you do collect, $20 barely covers a fast-food dinner, let alone the cost of your dignity. The kicker?
Our own actions devalue privacy even more. We live-stream our meals, tweet our thoughts, and allow apps to intrude for free.
If your privacy were a stock, you’d be trading it at a loss.
What Are You Getting in Return?
Maybe you’re fine trading privacy for convenience—but are you getting your money’s worth?
Let’s be real: we’re not exactly getting nothing. Siri sets reminders.
Google Maps keeps us from getting lost. Instagram gives us dopamine hits.
But with companies using our data to train billion-dollar AI models and flood us with ads, the scales aren’t tipping in our favor.
Privacy is the most undervalued currency of our digital age. To major companies, it’s worth billions, even trillions of dollars. But we’re handing it out like pocket change.
Rethinking Privacy: Practical Steps for a Digital World
If you’re starting to rethink what your privacy is worth, here are some tips for being more mindful about how you share it:
Audit Your Permissions: Check which apps can access your camera, microphone, and location. Revoke access for apps that don’t need it.
Say No More Often: The next time an app requests permissions, consider whether it’s really necessary to grant them. If not, decline.
Limit Social Media Sharing: Consider what you post, and who can see it. Use privacy settings to restrict access to your profiles.
Use Privacy-Focused Tools: Opt for browsers, search engines, and apps prioritizing user privacy. DuckDuckGo, Signal, and Firefox are great starting points.
Stay Informed: Privacy policies and terms of service may be dense, but understanding them can help you make more informed decisions. Thanks to AI, you can ask tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude to simplify the language for you through a simple prompt. (Prompt Suggestion: Explain these terms of service to a layperson [PASTE FULL-TEXT OF TOS HERE])
Ultimately, your privacy is worth more than $20 per device. It’s time we all start treating it that way—not just holding companies accountable but holding ourselves to a higher standard, too.
If you found this article thought-provoking, imagine what you’ve been missing.
Privacy is more than a buzzword—it’s your most undervalued asset, and understanding its worth is the first step in reclaiming it. If this resonated with you, there’s more where it came from.
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