Apple, one of the US technology companies, agreed to settle and pay 95 million dollars in a class-action lawsuit filed in the USA, alleging that its voice assistant technology ‘Siri’ violates users’ privacy. Senih Özay, a lawyer with 52 years of experience, married and father of 2 children, who has been using the company’s phone, started a legal fight through his lawyer Murat Fatih Ülkü on the grounds that ‘Turkish people also have the right to their rights, fundamental rights and freedoms and the right to privacy’. His lawyer, Murat Fatih Ülkü, brought the issue to the Konak Consumer Problems Arbitration Committee as the first step of the legal process on January 13.
“HE SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE IN TURKEY, AS IN AMERICA”
Explaining the reason for filing the case, Senih Özay said, “The court in America awarded compensation in the case filed by those who believed that Siri could capture, store and use conversations in advertisements or sell them. He made a protocol worth 95 million dollars. I have been a lawyer for 52 years. There is a possibility that my conversations will be intercepted and unlawful acts will be committed.” “They should be held accountable in Turkey, just like in America,” he said.
“THIS PROCESS HAS REACHED A CERTAIN PHASE”
Senih Özay’s lawyer Murat Fatih Ülkü said, “The company that owns the phones carrying the Siri application said that the application is activated only when the ‘Hey Siri’ trigger is triggered, other than that it is a sleeping application. But especially in the United States, it is required to detect the word ‘Hey Siri’. There is a legal process regarding the suspicions that it should be constantly wiretapped. This process has reached a certain stage. During this case, Apple implicitly admitted that this wiretapping was carried out in the pre-trial process in the USA. The company, which owns the phones with the Siri application, agreed to pay a certain amount of non-pecuniary damages to the users who applied in the United States, by allocating a fund of 95 million dollars. Since the principle of privacy is at least as valuable as the citizens of the United States, we thought that it should be held legally accountable. “Thereupon, we made this application,” he said.
“IT CAN BE CARRIED TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT”
Murat Fatih Ülkü said, “On behalf of my client Senih Özay, we made an application to the Consumer Problems Arbitration Committee of Konak District Governorship, the district where he resides. And we requested moral compensation. We stated that the application on the phone wiretapped the person without his permission. Now the committee has made a positive or negative decision.” “If it gives a negative decision, we will take it, and if it decides positively, the company will probably take the matter to the consumer court. This is the legal process in these cases, from our perspective, it can also be taken to the Constitutional Court,” he said.
CALL TO CITIZENS
Stating that they think that the application is pioneering, Ülkü said, “We want such companies to be aware that the citizens in our country are at least as valuable as those in America and that they also have rights. All citizens in the Republic of Turkey can apply to the consumer arbitration committee in their districts, and they can use ‘Siri’ on their phones.” “If there is a ‘practice, we think they can claim non-pecuniary damages. If these applications grow to such an extent, we think that the company will develop a model in Turkey, as in America, to give legal accountability for this action.”
(DHA)