APPLE has agreed to pay $95 million (£76m) to settle a lawsuit accusing the company of deploying its virtual assistant Siri to spy on people, it was reported on Thursday.

The proposed settlement filed in a US federal court in Oakland, California, would resolve a five-year old lawsuit alleging that Apple secretly activated Siri to record conversations through iPhones and other devices equipped with the virtual assistant for more than a decade.

The alleged recordings occurred even when people didn’t seek to activate the virtual assistant with the trigger words “hey, Siri.”

Some of the recorded conversations were then shared with advertisers in an attempt to sell their products to consumers more likely to be interested in the goods and services, the lawsuit asserted.

Apple isn’t acknowledging any wrongdoing in the settlement, which still must be approved by US District Judge Jeffrey White. 

If the settlement is approved after a hearing on February 14, tens of millions of consumers who owned iPhones and other Apple devices from September 17 2014 until the end of last year could file claims. 

Each consumer could receive up to $20 (around £16) per Siri-equipped device covered by the settlement, although the payment could be reduced or increased, depending on the volume of claims.