{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-11-07T02:56:10.288Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"federal","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"contextual","evidence":"","year":"2019","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":2,"coverage":{"cases":2,"countries":1,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":1,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":1,"regulatory":1,"minors":0,"coreRelations":0,"contextualRelations":2,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2019-apple-siri-accidental-activations-recorded-private-conversations-heard-by-contractors-95-million-settlement","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"'a small proportion of Siri recordings are passed on to contractors working for the company around the world. They are tasked with grading the responses on a variety of factors, including whether the activation of the voice assistant was deliberate or accidental'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'part of our Siri quality evaluation process — which we call grading'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"A small proportion of Siri recordings was passed to contractors who graded them.","causal_attribution":"The Guardian's report and Apple's own statement both describe human grading of Siri audio."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Siri can be accidentally activated when it mistakenly hears its “wake word”, the phrase “hey Siri”.'; '“The sound of a zip, Siri often hears as a trigger,” the contractor said.'; '“The regularity of accidental triggers on the watch is incredibly high,” they said.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'Our team will work to delete any recording which is determined to be an inadvertent trigger of Siri.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Siri sometimes activated without being deliberately invoked and recorded audio that reached Apple; according to the contractor, the sound of a zip was often heard as a trigger and accidental triggers on the Apple Watch were very frequent.","causal_attribution":"The trigger examples are the contractor's account; Apple's undertaking to delete inadvertent-trigger recordings confirms that such recordings were held, without giving their frequency."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'There have been countless instances of recordings featuring private discussions between doctors and patients, business deals, seemingly criminal dealings, sexual encounters and so on. These recordings are accompanied by user data showing location, contact details, and app data.'; 'Accidental activations led to the receipt of the most sensitive data that was sent to Apple.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"According to the contractor, recordings from accidental activations included private discussions between doctors and patients, business deals, apparently criminal dealings and sexual encounters, accompanied by location, contact details and app data.","causal_attribution":"A single anonymous contractor's account, relayed by the Guardian."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'User requests are not associated with the user’s Apple ID.'; 'a very small random subset, less than 1% of daily Siri activations, are used for grading'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Apple told the Guardian that Siri requests were not associated with the user's Apple ID and that less than 1% of daily Siri activations were used for grading.","causal_attribution":"Apple's statement to the Guardian; context and counterevidence on identifiability and scale."},{"id":"c5","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'immediately suspended human grading of Siri requests'; 'we realize we haven’t been fully living up to our high ideals, and for that we apologize.'; 'by default, we will no longer retain audio recordings of Siri interactions.'; 'users will be able to opt in to help Siri improve by learning from the audio samples of their requests.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Apple said it had suspended human grading of Siri requests, apologised for not fully living up to its ideals, and said it would by default no longer retain audio recordings, would make audio grading opt-in and would work to delete recordings determined to be inadvertent triggers.","causal_attribution":"Apple's own published statement establishes what Apple said and undertook."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Mobile device owners complained that Apple routinely recorded their private conversations after they activated Siri unintentionally, and disclosed these conversations to third parties such as advertisers.'; 'Two plaintiffs said their mentions of Air Jordan sneakers and Olive Garden restaurants triggered ads for those products. Another said he got ads for a brand name surgical treatment after discussing it, he thought privately, with his doctor.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"In Lopez et al v. Apple Inc., device owners alleged that Apple routinely recorded their private conversations after they activated Siri unintentionally and disclosed them to third parties such as advertisers; two plaintiffs said mentions of products triggered ads for them, and another said he got ads for a surgical treatment after discussing it with his doctor.","causal_attribution":"Plaintiffs' allegations as reported by Reuters; not established."},{"id":"c7","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'agreed to pay $95 million in cash to settle a proposed class action lawsuit'; 'The class period runs from Sept. 17, 2014 to Dec. 31, 2024.'; 'may receive up to $20 per Siri-enabled device'; 'Apple denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"Apple agreed to pay $95 million in cash to settle the class action, covering a class period from 17 September 2014 to 31 December 2024 with up to $20 per Siri-enabled device, and denied wrongdoing.","causal_attribution":"Reuters' report of the preliminary settlement filing; the filing itself was not read."},{"id":"c8","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White granted final approval on October 16, 2025, of Plaintiffs’ $95 million settlement with Apple'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"Co-class counsel say Judge Jeffrey S. White granted final approval of the $95 million settlement on 16 October 2025.","causal_attribution":"Plaintiffs' counsel's statement; the court order was not read, and other summaries give September or 14 October 2025 dates."}],"effects":[{"label":"Private conversations captured by accidental Siri activations and heard by contract graders, according to a contractor","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/26/apple-contractors-regularly-hear-confidential-details-on-siri-recordings","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-29 (theguardian.com, HTTP 200). No translation was needed; the research agent (an AI) read the text directly.","independence_group":"guardian-siri-contractor"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/08/improving-siris-privacy-protections/","kind":"company_statement","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-29 (apple.com, HTTP 200); the page gives its date as 28 August 2019. No translation was needed.","independence_group":"apple-statement-siri-grading"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-pay-95-million-settle-151238610.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-29 (finance.yahoo.com syndication of the Reuters report, HTTP 200; reuters.com returned 401). No translation was needed.","independence_group":"reuters-lopez-settlement"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://lowey.com/news/the-courts-granted-final-approval-for-apple-siri-litigation-for-95-million/","kind":"law_firm_statement","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-29 (lowey.com, HTTP 200). The post carries no publication date of its own; the court order itself was not read. No translation was needed.","independence_group":"lowey-final-approval"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use","unknown"],"contexts":["privacy","everyday_life","health"],"unknowns":["How many people were recorded by accidental activations or heard by graders.","Whether any recorded person was identified or harmed beyond the capture and listening described.","Whether the plaintiffs' advert allegations were ever substantiated; Apple denied wrongdoing.","The exact final-approval date in the court record (counsel gives 16 October 2025; the order was not read)."],"geography":{"basis":"The class action was in the US District Court for the Northern District of California (Oakland), per Reuters and co-class counsel. The Guardian says the contractors worked around the world and does not say where the recorded people were; no event or affected-person country is stated.","court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as private conversations captured into an AI voice assistant without the speakers' knowledge: Siri's wake-word detection activated by mistake and graders heard the recordings, according to the Guardian's contractor source, and Apple acknowledged inadvertent-trigger recordings, apologised and changed its grading. The class action allegations are attributed to the plaintiffs; Apple settled for $95 million while denying wrongdoing.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-29"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"Siri's own wake-word and raise-to-speak detection activated by mistake: the Guardian's contractor source says the sound of a zip was often heard as the trigger and accidental triggers on the Apple Watch were very frequent, and Apple undertook to delete recordings determined to be inadvertent triggers. The audio Siri captured on those activations was sent to Apple and a share was passed to contract graders, who, according to the contractor, heard doctor-patient discussions, business deals and sexual encounters with location and contact data attached. That capture into the assistant and disclosure to graders without the speakers knowing is the privacy harm recorded here; the plaintiffs' further claim that recordings led to targeted adverts is an allegation that Apple denied in settling.","status":"supported"},"person_relations":["received_personal_information"]},"name":"Whistleblower says accidental Siri activations recorded private conversations heard by Apple contract graders; Apple apologised and later settled class suit","summary":"On 26 July 2019 the Guardian reported that contractors grading a small share of Siri recordings for Apple regularly heard confidential information. Its anonymous source, a contractor, said Siri was often activated by mistake, for example by the sound of a zip, and that these accidental activations captured private discussions between doctors and patients, business deals, apparently criminal dealings and sexual encounters, with location, contact details and app data attached. Apple told the Guardian that requests were not linked to users' Apple IDs and that less than 1% of daily activations were graded. On 28 August 2019 Apple apologised, said it had suspended human grading, and said audio would no longer be retained by default, grading would become opt-in and recordings found to be inadvertent triggers would be deleted. Device owners' class action, Lopez v. Apple in the federal court in Oakland, alleged that Apple recorded private conversations after unintended Siri activations and disclosed them to third parties. Apple agreed to pay $95 million while denying wrongdoing, and co-class counsel say the judge granted final approval on 16 October 2025.","incidentDate":"2019-01-01","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"year","exposurePattern":"unknown","reportedDate":"2019-07-26","aiSystem":"Siri, Apple's voice assistant on iPhone, Apple Watch and HomePod, with wake-word (\"Hey Siri\") detection and raise-to-speak activation; a small share of its audio recordings was passed to contract graders","aiProduct":"Siri","aiCompany":"Apple","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["other_material_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A Guardian contractor source says accidental Siri activations recorded private conversations, including doctor-patient talk, that contract graders heard; Apple apologised, and settled a class suit for $95 million (loss of privacy).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"unquantified","affectedCountEvidence":"The Guardian's contractor source describes \"countless instances\" of recordings of private conversations from accidental Siri activations but gives no number of people heard. Reuters reports that class members are estimated in the tens of millions; that is the size of the settlement class of device owners, not a count of people whose conversations were recorded or heard. No reliable count exists, so the count is unquantified with zero placeholders.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","jurisdiction":"US","platformType":"assistant","outcomeType":"lawsuit_settled","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/26/apple-contractors-regularly-hear-confidential-details-on-siri-recordings","primarySourceLabel":"The Guardian (Alex Hern), 26 July 2019: Apple contractors 'regularly hear confidential details' on Siri recordings","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-29T03:10:14.834844+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-29T03:10:14.834844+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["voice-assistant","false-activation","human-review","privacy","class-action","settlement"]},{"id":"2019-us-rite-aid-facial-recognition-false-matches-led-staff-to-search-and-eject-shoppers-ftc-says","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'The technology generated alerts sent to Rite Aid’s employees, including by email or mobile phone application notifications (“match alerts”), indicating that individuals who had entered Rite Aid stores were matches for entries in Rite Aid’s watchlist database.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Rite Aid used facial recognition in its stores to send employees match alerts saying that people entering were matches for its watchlist database, and employees acted on the alerts.","causal_attribution":"FTC allegation; Rite Aid neither admits nor denies."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'In numerous instances, the match alerts that led to these actions were false positives' and 'Rite Aid employees recorded thousands of false positive match alerts between December 2019 and July 2020.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The FTC alleges that in numerous instances the alerts that led employees to watch, eject, accuse, search or report customers to police were false positives, and that employees recorded thousands of false-positive alerts between December 2019 and July 2020.","causal_attribution":"FTC allegation from Rite Aid records; not adjudicated."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Rite Aid employees stopped and searched an 11-year-old girl on the basis of a false- positive facial recognition match. The girl’s mother told Rite Aid that she had missed work because her daughter was so distraught by the incident.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Employees stopped and searched an 11-year-old girl on a false-positive match; her mother told Rite Aid she missed work because her daughter was so distraught.","causal_attribution":"FTC allegation based on a complaint to Rite Aid."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'an alert indicating that a consumer—' and 'specifically a Black woman—was a match for an enrollment image that Rite Aid employees' and 'described as depicting “a white lady with blonde hair.” In response to the alert, Rite Aid' and 'employees called the police and asked the woman to leave the store before realizing the alert was'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The system matched a Black woman to an enrollment image employees described as a white woman with blonde hair; employees called the police and asked her to leave before realising the alert was false.","causal_attribution":"FTC allegation drawn from Rite Aid's internal investigation."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Consumers complained to Rite Aid that they had experienced humiliation and feelings of stigmatization as a result of being confronted' and '[E]very black man is not [a] thief nor should they be made to feel like one' and 'I feel different from this experience when I walk into a store now it’s weird.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Customers complained of humiliation and stigmatisation from false-positive stops; one wrote of feeling different entering stores afterwards and of being made to feel like a thief.","causal_attribution":"Consumer complaints as quoted by the FTC."},{"id":"c6","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'are prohibited for five (5) years from the effective date of this Order from deploying or using, or assisting in the deployment or use of, any Facial Recognition or Analysis System' and 'Defendants neither admit nor deny any of the allegations in the Complaint'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Rite Aid agreed to a proposed stipulated order prohibiting it for five years from using facial recognition or analysis systems in retail stores, while neither admitting nor denying the complaint's allegations.","causal_attribution":"Terms of the filed proposed order; its entry by the court was not inspected."}],"effects":[{"label":"girl stopped and searched on a false facial-recognition match","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"},{"label":"police called and customer asked to leave on a false match","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"},{"label":"humiliation and stigmatisation from false-positive stops","claim_id":"c5","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/2023190_riteaid_complaint_filed.pdf","kind":"court_filing","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-22 from the Internet Archive capture (ftc.gov direct returned 404); no translation needed. FTC complaint, E.D. Pa. 2:23-cv-05023, Document 1, filed 19 Dec 2023; the text of page 1 was not extractable.","independence_group":"ftc-v-rite-aid-2023-filings"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/2023190_riteaid_stipulated_order_filed.pdf","kind":"court_filing","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-22 from the Internet Archive capture (ftc.gov direct returned 404); no translation needed. Proposed stipulated order and attached decision and order, Document 2-2, filed 19 Dec 2023.","independence_group":"ftc-v-rite-aid-2023-filings"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["everyday_life","privacy"],"unknowns":["When and where the girl was searched and the police were called on the woman.","Which vendors supplied the technology (the complaint does not name them in the text read).","Whether and when the court entered the proposed order.","How many customers were stopped, searched or ejected on false matches."],"geography":{"basis":"The complaint places Rite Aid's facial recognition use in its US stores (New York City, Los Angeles and other US cities); it was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The described customers' countries are not stated.","court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a contextual case (made_claim_about, informed_decision_about): the FTC alleges Rite Aid's facial recognition wrongly matched customers to a watchlist and staff acted on the false alerts by searching an 11-year-old girl and calling police on a woman; Rite Aid agreed to a five-year ban without admitting the allegations.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The FTC complaint says Rite Aid's facial recognition system compared customers' faces with a watchlist and sent employees match alerts, that the alerts were in numerous instances false positives (the system wrongly identified a person as someone in the database), and that employees acted on those false alerts by searching an 11-year-old girl, calling police on a Black woman and asking customers to leave. The system's own wrong matches are the alleged error; Rite Aid neither admits nor denies.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["made_claim_about","informed_decision_about"]},"name":"US: FTC says Rite Aid's facial recognition falsely matched shoppers to a watchlist, leading staff to search an 11-year-old girl and call police on a woman","summary":"In a complaint filed in federal court in Pennsylvania on 19 December 2023, the US Federal Trade Commission alleged that the pharmacy chain Rite Aid used facial recognition in its stores to match customers against a database of people it suspected of shoplifting or other wrongdoing, and that staff acted on the match alerts by following, searching, ejecting and publicly accusing customers and by calling the police. The FTC says many alerts were false positives: employees recorded thousands of false-positive alerts between December 2019 and July 2020, staff stopped and searched an 11-year-old girl on a false match, and employees called the police on a Black woman matched to an image of a white woman with blonde hair. Rite Aid agreed to a proposed order barring it from using facial recognition in retail stores for five years, without admitting or denying the allegations.","incidentDate":"2019-12-01","incidentEndDate":"2020-07-01","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"month","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2023-12-19","aiSystem":"Facial recognition technology from two vendors (not named in the complaint) that Rite Aid deployed in its stores to compare customers' faces with a watchlist database and send match alerts to employees","aiProduct":"Unidentified facial recognition system","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["psychological_distress","reputational_harm","other_material_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The FTC alleges that false facial-recognition matches led Rite Aid staff to search, eject, publicly accuse and call police on customers, including an 11-year-old girl who was searched and a Black woman on whom police were called; customers described humiliation and stigmatisation.","frameworkFacets":[],"pathwayDirection":"inward","causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":3,"affectedCountStatus":"partial","affectedCountEvidence":"Three people described individually in the complaint: the 11-year-old girl searched on a false match, the Black woman on whom police were called, and the customer who wrote about being treated as a thief. The complaint's thousands of recorded false-positive alerts are alerts, not counted people, so others remain unquantified.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","jurisdiction":"US","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"regulatory_action","outcomeStatus":"unknown","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/2023190_riteaid_complaint_filed.pdf","primarySourceLabel":"FTC v. Rite Aid Corp., E.D. Pa. 2:23-cv-05023, complaint filed 19 Dec 2023","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-22T03:13:38.451275+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-22T03:13:38.451275+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["facial_recognition","retail","alleged_false_match","ftc"]}]}