Apple pays in court but reiterates: Siri respects privacy!

Apple has reaffirmed its strong commitment to Siri privacyclarifying that the data relating to the voice assistant they have never been used to create profiles linked to advertisementsnor shared with advertisers or sold for any other purpose.

This statement comes following a legal agreement from 95 million dollars to settle a class action lawsuit accusing Apple of recording conversations accidentally captured by Siri and sharing this information with third parties.

The lawsuit arose from testimonies from users who said they received targeted ads after discussing certain topics in the vicinity of their Apple devices. For example, one user reported seeing ads for shoes Air Jordan and restaurants Olive Garden after talking about it, while another said he received advertisements for surgical treatment after a private conversation with his doctor.

Apple has always denied these accusations, stating that there is no evidence whether Siri recordings have been shared with third parties. The decision to resolve the lawsuit with a settlement was made to avoid further legal disputes, as confirmed by a company spokesperson.

Apple he published a detailed analysis on privacy protection measures implemented for Siri, underlining that user data is treated with extreme care:

1. On-device data processing: Siri uses local processing whenever possible, minimizing the amount of data that leaves your device.
2. Random identifiers: Requests made to Siri are not associated with the user’s Apple ID, but are tracked through a random identifier, making it impossible to link them to a specific person.
3. No audio recordings kept without consent: Apple does not store voice interactions with Siri unless the user explicitly opts in to help improve the service. Again, recordings are used for development purposes only and never shared.

Siri’s privacy model differs significantly from that of other voice assistants, such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, which often keep voice recordings to improve their algorithms. Apple continues to stand out for its approach privacy-firsttrying to protect user data at every stage.

The $95 million legal settlement is certainly significant, but it’s equally important to point out that Apple decided to settle the matter to avoid further complications, not to admit guilt.

News