Apple Highlights Privacy Commitment After Settling Siri Spying Lawsuit

Apple today reiterated its commitment to Siri privacy, making it clear that ‌Siri‌ data has never been used to build marketing profiles, nor has any ‌Siri‌ information been made available to advertisers or sold for any purpose.

siri glow
Apple's newsroom post comes after it settled a class action lawsuit related to ‌Siri‌ for $95 million. Plaintiffs accused Apple of recording conversations captured after accidental ‌Siri‌ activations, and then sharing information from those conversations with third-party advertisers.

Two plaintiffs claimed that after speaking about products like Air Jordan shoes and Olive Garden, their Apple devices showed ads for those products, while another said he received ads for a surgical treatment after discussing it privately with his doctor.

There has never been any indication that Apple shared ‌Siri‌ recordings, and Apple told MacRumors in a statement earlier this week that the lawsuit was settled to avoid additional litigation.

In its full privacy overview, Apple goes into detail on the ‌Siri‌ privacy protections that are in place to keep user data safe. Apple uses on-device ‌Siri‌ processing wherever possible, and minimizes the amount of data that's collected as much as possible.

‌Siri‌ searches and requests are not associated with an Apple Account and cannot be linked to an individual user, with Apple instead using a random identifier to keep track of data as it's processed.

Apple says that it does not retain audio recordings of ‌Siri‌ interactions unless users explicitly opt in to help improve ‌Siri‌, and even then, recordings are used just for that purpose.

Popular Stories

streaming black friday 2025

Black Friday Streaming Deals Include Big Savings on Disney+, Hulu, Apple TV, and More

Monday November 24, 2025 8:03 am PST by
We've been focusing on deals on physical products over the past few weeks, but Black Friday is also a great time of year to purchase a streaming membership. Some of the biggest services have great discounts for new and select returning members this week, including Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock, and more. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

iOS 27 Will Reportedly Have Two Key Upgrades

Sunday November 23, 2025 8:48 am PST by
iOS 27 will reportedly have two major elements: quality improvements and new AI features. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that iOS 27 will be similar to Mac OS X Snow Leopard, in the sense that Apple is focused on improving "quality and underlying performance" over adding new features. Gurman said there is one exception to this rule, though, as he expects...
iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Adds These New Features to Your iPhone

Thursday November 20, 2025 10:50 am PST by
iOS 26.2 is currently in beta testing. The upcoming update includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, including a new Liquid Glass slider for the Lock Screen's clock, offline lyrics for Apple Music, and more. In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 26.2 will be released to all users in December, but it did not provide a specific release date. Keep reading...
General Black Friday Deals 25 Red

Apple Black Friday Deals Available Now on AirPods, iPads, Accessories, and More

Friday November 21, 2025 8:48 am PST by
We're only a few days away from Black Friday, which will take place on Friday, November 28 in 2025. As always, this will be the best time of the year to shop for great deals, including popular Apple products like AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. In this article, the majority of the discounts will be found on Amazon. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When...
maxresdefault

The MacRumors Show: iPhone 18 Pro Looks Like a Huge Upgrade

Friday November 21, 2025 9:10 am PST by
On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we talk through all of the new features and improvements expected to come to next year's iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max models. Subscribe to The MacRumors Show YouTube channel for more videos Apple's next-generation iPhones are less than ten months away and we already have a good idea about what to expect based on corroborated leaks, rumors,...
apple news banner

Apple News Loses CNN

Monday November 24, 2025 7:56 am PST by
American multinational news company CNN has abruptly pulled its content from Apple News, Semafor reports. CNN quietly removed its stories from Apple News over the weekend and there is no longer a feed from the network to subscribe to in the app. This effectively ends its distribution agreement with Apple while the two sides negotiate new terms. Discussions are apparently ongoing and CNN's...
amazon black friday

Amazon Kicks Off Black Friday Sale With Major Discounts on Apple Accessories, TVs, and More

Sunday November 23, 2025 7:12 am PST by
Black Friday deals have begun, and Amazon is one of the best places you can find steep discounts on numerous products this week. We've already collected all of the best Apple-related deals you'll find at Amazon (and other retailers) in our Apple Black Friday Deals post, so below you'll find other discounts on devices like Anker accessories, Beats headphones, video games, TVs, and more. Note:...
Apple Foldable Thumb

Foldable iPhone to Debut These Three Breakthrough Features

Tuesday November 25, 2025 7:09 am PST by
Apple's first foldable iPhone is expected to launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro models in fall 2026, and it's shaping up to include three standout features that could set it apart from the competition. The book-style foldable will reportedly feature an industry-first 24-megapixel under-display camera built into the inner display, according to a recent JP Morgan equity research report. That...
Apple Shopping Event 2025

Apple Announces 2025 Black Friday Event, Here's What You Can Get

Thursday November 20, 2025 6:28 am PST by
Apple's annual four-day Black Friday through Cyber Monday shopping event is returning on Friday, November 28 through Monday, December 1 in many countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Thailand, and others. During the shopping event, customers can get an Apple gift card with...

Top Rated Comments

surferfb Avatar
12 months ago

If it were possible, whistleblowers would be all over it. There would be a lawsuit for sure. It’s not possible to hide such activity from people with tech expertise.

Most people think the only way an ad company can know something is that it’s listening to you. But the algorithms are fairly clever. Things one person searches can be combined with something a second person searches on the same WiFi network, and the two pieces of info lead to a conclusion about their life that might seem suspiciously like they’re listening to you.
This. In addition, they’d be breaking wiretapping laws, it’d be a massive technical undertaking that would destroy the company if it ever leaked, probably send CEOs to jail, and most importantly, they don’t need to listen.

Your apps aren’t spying on you via your microphone. But they are spying on you.

This article ('https://lifehacker.com/what-people-are-getting-wrong-this-week-phone-surveill-1850658089') does a pretty good job of explaining why this happens.

Side note: I have an acquaintance who is high up at one of these data companies. He once told me that he thinks that if the general public understood how much data they were getting from people’s devices there would be be actual protests in the streets.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Exile714 Avatar
12 months ago

I would like to know how Apple ensures that third party apps, like Facebook, are prevented from listening in. We've disabled microphone access to all apps and yet there have still been cases of ads showing up related to something we discussed privately at home. Has one or more developers found a way around the API protections?
If it were possible, whistleblowers would be all over it. There would be a lawsuit for sure. It’s not possible to hide such activity from people with tech expertise.

Most people think the only way an ad company can know something is that it’s listening to you. But the algorithms are fairly clever. Things one person searches can be combined with something a second person searches on the same WiFi network, and the two pieces of info lead to a conclusion about their life that might seem suspiciously like they’re listening to you.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gaggle Avatar
12 months ago
I can’t believe this rumor of secret microphone recordings continue to live. It’s like, it connects to the human primal mind or something: a complex world explained by the much simpler (but technologically impossible to hide) sneaky lies of a 4 trillion dollar company betting their entire goodwill by actions that can be undone by a single whistleblower.

Instead of facing the truth (that our actions are almost entirely predictable based on datapoints) we insist on a much simpler concocted reality. Very human.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheBWolf Avatar
12 months ago

If it were possible, whistleblowers would be all over it. There would be a lawsuit for sure. It’s not possible to hide such activity from people with tech expertise.

Most people think the only way an ad company can know something is that it’s listening to you. But the algorithms are fairly clever. Things one person searches can be combined with something a second person searches on the same WiFi network, and the two pieces of info lead to a conclusion about their life that might seem suspiciously like they’re listening to you.
This exactly. People think their devices are listening to them precisely because they fail to understand just how much these companies don't need to listen to you.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
surferfb Avatar
12 months ago

And how is that any better than actually listening on someone
Well, it doesn’t break wiretapping laws for starters.

Remember these companies almost certainly have thousands and thousands of data points on you and people you spend time with. Including detailed location data, what you search for, websites you have accounts for, your birthday, your spouse’s birthday etc.

They literally don’t need to listen to you. Actions speak louder than words. If I’m looking for a birthday present for my wife, I’m going to be searching for ideas, not talking to her about it. You casually mention you’re interested you’d like to learn how to golf and your wife googles “how much do golf lessons cost”. Now you both get golf ads.

Everyone think it’s because their smartphones are listening but it is actually significantly more invasive.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
I7guy Avatar
12 months ago
Apple must be trying to dispel the MacRumor's rumors due to blowback from settling a lawsuit. I don't believe the sell the information.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)