Apple records and keeps users' Siri queries for up to 2
years
By Salvador Rodriguez
April 19, 2013, 1:52 p.m.
Siri isn't just a pretty voice with the answers. It's
also been recording and keeping all the questions users ask.
Exactly what the voice assistant does with the data isn't
clear, but Apple confirmed that it keeps users' questions for up to two years.
Siri, which needs to be connected to the Internet to function, sends all of its
users' queries to Apple.
Apple revealed the information after Wired posted an
article this week raising the question and highlighting the fact that the
privacy statement for Siri wasn't very clear about how long that information is
kept or what would be done with it.
Technically Apple keeps Siri user data for six months,
associating that data with the user. After that time, the company will
disassociate users from the data, meaning it will remove any identifiers for
who input that particular query into Siri. But for the next 18 months, Apple said,
it keeps the disassociated data for the sake of product testing and improvement
purposes.
The Cupertino, Calif., tech company didn't return calls
seeking more information, particularly on whether Apple shares the data with
anyone else.
Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller told Wired that "our
customers' privacy is very important to us.”
Apple said that if a user turns off Siri, all the stored
queries that are associated with that user over the last six months are
deleted.
To turn off Siri, users can head to the settings app and
tap "General" followed by "Siri." There, users can switch
the toggle to the right of "Siri" from "On" to
"Off."
Siri launched with the iPhone 4S more than a year ago and
is now on the iPhone 5, the third- and fourth-generation iPad, the
fifth-generation iPod Touch and the iPad mini.
Comments
Post a Comment