Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) clarifies Siri "eavesdropping" lawsuit: Data has never been used for advertising or sold to third parties.

Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) clarified on Wednesday that the company has never sold the data collected by its voice assistant Siri, nor has it used this data to create marketing profiles. Just a few days ago, the company settled a case facing similar allegations. Last week, the iPhone manufacturer paid $95 million to settle a class action lawsuit. The plaintiffs accused Apple Inc. of frequently recording their private conversations after unintentionally activating Siri, and disclosing these conversations to advertisers and other third parties. The company denied these allegations and did not admit to them in the settlement agreement last week. According to the settlement agreement, tens of millions of Apple Inc. customers with Siri-enabled devices, such as iPhone and Apple Watch, may receive up to $20 in compensation. Apple Inc. stated on Wednesday: "Apple Inc. has never used Siri data to build marketing profiles, never used it for advertising, and never sold it to anyone for any purpose." After social media users and commentators interpreted the settlement as an admission of the allegations, Apple Inc. issued a statement. The company mentioned that certain features require real-time inputs from Apple Inc. servers, and only in these cases, Siri uses as little data as possible to provide accurate results. Apple Inc. stated: "Unless users explicitly choose to participate to help improve Siri, Apple Inc. does not retain recordings of Siri interactions, and even then, these recordings are used only for that purpose." It added that it will continue developing technologies to make Siri more private. Another similar lawsuit representing Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOGL.US) voice assistant users is currently being heard in the federal court in San Jose, California. The plaintiffs are represented by the same law firm as in the Apple Inc. case.