Apple Highlights Siri’s Privacy-Focused Approach Amid Growing Data Security Concerns

Apple issued a statement on Wednesday highlighting the company’s commitment to protecting user data processed by Siri. The statement came just days after the Cupertino-based tech giant agreed to settle a proposed class action lawsuit that claimed that Apple recorded private conversations with the voice assistant and sold them to third parties such as advertisers. In its statement, the iPhone maker emphasised that data processed during interactions with Siri was never used by Apple. The company also detailed several ways Siri actively protects user data.

Apple Denies Ever Selling Siri’s User Data

In a newsroom post, the tech giant stated that Apple’s products and features are built with privacy technologies and principles of data minimisation, on-device intelligence, and transparency. While the company did not directly address the class action lawsuit which is still pending approval by a judge, it did respond to the allegations made by the complainants.

“Apple has never used Siri data to build marketing profiles, never made it available for advertising, and never sold it to anyone for any purpose. We are constantly developing technologies to make Siri even more private, and will continue to do so,” the company stated.

The tech giant also shared several ways Siri’s product design enables data protection for users. Apple said that the voice assistant is built to carry out the majority of processing on-device. Some of these tasks include reading messages and providing suggestions via widgets and Siri search. Additionally, the content of the messages never leaves the device as they are not required to complete the request, the company claimed.

Audio-based user requests are also processed on-device in newer devices that are equipped with a Neural Engine, Apple claimed. The company added that audio conversations with Siri are only recorded by Apple when the user explicitly chooses to share it to improve Siri.

Another way Siri protects user data is by minimising the amount of data collected for requests. Highlighting that some Siri features require real-time processing from Apple servers, the company claimed that in such cases the voice assistant uses as little data as possible. Interestingly, the iPhone maker claimed that Siri searches and requests are not associated with a user’s Apple account, and instead, a random identifier is used to keep track of data while it is being processed on the server.

Finally, the company stated that it is using the recently launched Private Cloud Compute for Apple Intelligence-based Siri features. The cloud server does not store data beyond the time it takes to process the information and no data is made accessible to Apple, the company claimed.