Apple has agreed to pay $95 million (£77 million) to settle a lawsuit alleging that some of its devices eavesdropped on people without their permission.

The tech giant was accused of wiretapping its customers through its virtual assistant Siri.

The plaintiffs also allege that voice recordings were shared with advertisers.

Apple, which has not admitted any wrongdoing, was contacted for comment.

In the preliminary billing, The tech company denies any wrongdoing, claiming that it “recorded, shared with third parties, or failed to delete conversations recorded as a result of a Siri activation without consent.”

Apple’s lawyers also say they will confirm that they have “permanently deleted individual Siri audio recordings that Apple collected prior to October 2019.”

But plaintiffs say the tech company recorded people unintentionally activating the virtual assistant — without using the phrase “Hey, Siri” to activate it.

And they say advertisers who received the recordings could then search them for keywords to better target their ads.

Apple has suggested a decision date of February 14th to the court in Oakland, California.

In class action lawsuits, a small number of people go to court on behalf of a larger group.

If successful, the money won will be paid out to all plaintiffs.

According to court documents, each plaintiff — who must be based in the U.S. — could be paid up to $20 per Siri-enabled device they owned between 2014 and 2019.

In this case, the lawyers could cover 30% of the fee plus expenses, or almost $30 million.

By settling, Apple not only denies wrongdoing, but also avoids the risk of litigation, which could potentially mean a much larger payout.

The Californian company earned $94.9 billion in the three months ending September 28, 2024.

Apple has been involved in a number of class action lawsuits in recent years,

In January 2024, payment began in a $500 million lawsuit that claimed it intentionally slowed down iPhones in the US.

In March it agreed Pay $490 million in a class action brought by Norfolk County Council in the United Kingdom.

And in November consumer group Which? launched a class action lawsuit against Apple, accusing the company of ripping off customers iCloud service.