> The cash won’t all go to Apple Siri users. Some of the money will go to the legal teams, who could take 30% of the fee plus expenses — a total of just under $30 million.
30% seems like a steep cut of the 95 million to me. I dislike how these class actions frequently end up mostly going to lawyers.
For some reason, I was pleasantly surprised it wasn’t 50%, but you’re right this is mainly a fine for Apple and a nice payday for the legal team. Someone has to do the work and I’m sure it’s a lot of work, but I’m also sure they’re highly motivated and walking away with a profit too.
The problem is even class action lawsuits that payout a few thousand dollars per person doesn’t help the recipients much. In this case 30% more money to the people in the class won’t make any meaningful difference to them at all. If the lawyers were getting 0% instead of 30%, the payout would be almost $30, and $30/person isn’t helping the average iPhone user, nor making up for individual privacy violations. The vast majority of people getting the $20 will not have experienced accidental recording. The sum-total damages is the only thing that might motivate Apple to tighten security, but they probably already did it, and TBH I feel like Apple’s got a better record on privacy than almost all other big tech, so the $95M is perhaps pure punishment for past deeds.
The only one of these that I ever felt good about taking was the Apple Keyboard settlement. They sold me that lemon laptop after they already knew it was defective, and it was always being repaired.
30% seems like a steep cut of the 95 million to me. I dislike how these class actions frequently end up mostly going to lawyers.