As Siri Privacy Violations Controversy Rages, Apple Says 'Committed To Protecting User Data'

In the midst of a class action lawsuit alleging privacy violations by Siri—Apple's voice-activated assistant—the tech major has shared its commitment to protect user privacy on its website. Notably, recently, Apple agreed to settle the lawsuit by paying a huge amount to resolve the case.

Apple reiterated that it is committed to protecting user data, and its products and features are built with privacy technologies and techniques. Privacy is driven by principles that include data minimisation, on-device intelligence, transparency and control, and strong security protections, it said. Apple added that these privacy principles apply to Siri, claiming that the voice assistant has been created with user privacy in mind.

The controversy that hit Siri erupted due to numerous complaints by Apple users who alleged that when they unintentionally activated Siri, their private conversations were captured and sent to advertising and other third parties. According to reports, the illicit recordings began when Apple added the “Hey, Siri” command feature to the voice assistant.

“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’s post read.

Siri does as much processing as possible on a user’s device, without having to transfer personal information on to Apple servers. In effect, when users talk to Siri or type-in their questions, these requests are processed on device whenever possible, the company said. 

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. The contents of the messages aren’t transmitted to Apple servers. For capable devices, the audio of user requests is processed on device using the Neural Engine, unless a user shares it with Apple.

Apple admitted that certain features require real-time input from Apple servers. In such cases, Siri uses as little data as possible, and its searches and requests are not associated with a user’s Apple Account or phone number. 

The company does not retain audio recordings of Siri interactions unless users choose to help improve Siri, and recordings are used for that purpose only. Users can choose to opt out any time, Apple added.

While denying any wrongdoing, the company has consented to pay $95 million in cash to resolve the class action lawsuit alleging privacy violations by Siri.