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.

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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.

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Top Rated Comments

surferfb Avatar
12 weeks 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 weeks 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 weeks 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 weeks 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 weeks 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 weeks 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)