After being hit by a lawsuit over “unlawful and intentional recording” of Siri interactions, Apple has agreed to pay $95 million in a settlement.Even so, the company has just published an article reaffirming its commitment to privacy and clarifying how Siri works.Apple reaffirms its commitment to Siri privacy In a post shared on its website for the press, Apple says it is “committed to protecting user data” and reinforced that the company’s products are “built from the ground up” with privacy technologies.
According to Apple, the company has never used Siri data to build marketing profiles and has never offered such data to advertisers.As noted by the company, Siri uses on-device processing when possible, so that requests can be handled offline without the need to send them to Apple’s servers.“For example, when a user asks Siri to read unread messages, or when Siri provides suggestions through widgets and Siri search, the processing is done on the user’s device,” Apple explains.
Apple also says that audio of user requests is not shared with Apple unless the user chooses to do so as a way of providing feedback.In some cases, Siri needs to communicate with Apple’s servers, but the company argues that the requests are made anonymously through a “random identifier” not associated with the user’s Apple Account.This process ensures that no one can track the data or identify who’s behind the requests.
Audio recordings are deleted unless users have chosen to share them with Apple.In the article, Apple also talks about how similar privacy practices apply to Apple Intelligence, which processes most of the data on-device.“For Apple Intelligence requests that require access to larger models, Private Cloud Compute extends the privacy and security of iPhone into 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 conversations with Siri without users’ consent, and that these conversations were then shared with third-party services that led to targeted ads.All of this would be related to the “Hey Siri” command that requires the device to always be listening with the microphone on.Despite the company reinforcing its commitment to privacy and clarifying that it has made a lot of changes over the years to make Siri even more private and secure, the company has agreed to pay to settle the case.
No details are available yet on how to claim your stake of the payout.More information about Apple’s privacy policies can be found on the company’s website.Read also: Best deals on Apple products Apple Intelligence now requires almost double the iPhone storage it needed before Apple promises software update to address Apple Intelligence notification summary complaints You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day.
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