Last month, we learned that requests made by Siri and Google Assistant users were listened to and analyzed by employees of companies working on behalf of Apple and Google respectively.
Following these revelations, which could potentially tarnish its image as a defender of privacy, Apple had blocked all of its programs for listening to Siri requests by humans. Apple also specifies that the listenings concerned less than 0.2% of global requests.
Apple apologizes and has just communicated new reassuring measures for the program for listening to Siri requests which should return this fall, after the arrival of iOS 13.
New measures for Siri listening
First of all, Apple will no longer keep audio recordings of interactions with Siri by default. They will continue to use computer-generated transcriptions to help Siri improve.
Users will be able to choose to have their audio recordings analyzed by Apple teams, to help improve the Siri voice assistant. It will be possible at any time to reverse this choice via a setting in iOS.
Finally, Apple specifies that it no longer uses external service providers to listen to and analyze Siri requests. From now on, it will be exclusively Apple employees who will listen to audio samples of interactions with Siri.
Apple will also delete all audio recordings deemed accidental, i.e. when the Siri assistant was triggered by accident, for example because of the television or other.
Privacy above all
In its press release, Apple reiterates its commitment to protecting user privacy and that this also includes Siri. “We do not use Siri data to build a marketing profile and we will never sell this data to a third party company.”
“We use Siri data only to improve the performance of the voice assistant, and we are always developing new technologies to make Siri even more private.“
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By : Keleops AG
Deputy editor-in-chief, also known under the pseudonym Teza. Former video games journalist, who has been immersed in tech and Apple products since his very first iPhone 3GS in 2009. He has since worked for several American tech sites and now for iPhon.fr. Incidentally YouTuber and Apple product specialist on the MobileAddict channel. To contact me: maxime[a]iphon.fr
