Apple goes in-depth on its commitment to Siri privacy

After being sued for “illegally and intentionally recording” interactions with Siri, Apple agreed to pay $95 million in compensation. Despite this, the company has just published an article reaffirming its commitment to privacy and explaining how Siri works.

Apple reaffirms its commitment to Siri privacy

In a message published on the press siteApple says it is “committed to protecting user data” and emphasizes that its products are “built from the ground up” with privacy technologies. According to Apple, the company has never used Siri data to create marketing profiles and has never offered such data to advertisers.

As the company notes, Siri uses on-device processing whenever possible, so requests can be processed offline without having to send them to Apple servers. “For example, when a user asks Siri to read unread messages or when Siri provides suggestions through widgets and Siri Search, processing occurs on the user’s device,” Apple explains.

Apple also states that user audio requests are not shared with Apple unless the user chooses to do so as a way to provide feedback.

In some cases, Siri needs to contact Apple’s servers, but the company says requests are made anonymously through a “random ID” not associated with the user’s Apple account. This process ensures that no one can trace the data or determine who is behind the requests. Audio recordings are deleted unless users choose to share them with Apple.

In the article, Apple also talks about how similar privacy rules apply to Apple Intelligence, which processes most of the data on a device. “For Apple Intelligence queries that require access to larger models, Private Cloud Compute extends iPhone privacy and security in the cloud to unlock even more intelligence,” the company adds.

Lawsuit over data collected through Siri

The lawsuit was filed in 2019. and alleged that Apple recorded Siri conversations without users’ consent, and that those conversations were then shared with third-party services, resulting in targeted advertising. This will all be linked to the “Hey Siri” command, which requires the device to always listen with the microphone on.

Although the company reinforces its commitment to privacy and explains that it has made many changes over the years to make Siri even more private and secure, the company agreed to pay to settle the case. There are no details yet on how to receive your share of the payment.

More information about Apple’s privacy policy can be found at company website.

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