Apple is working on a key iPhone update that will enable an important Apple Intelligence feature on supported devices. iOS 18.4 will bring the more advanced Siri assistant to the iPhone 15 Pros and all iPhone 16 models in the coming months.
Siri will have access to more contextual information from iPhone apps to better respond to user prompts. Siri will also be able to control apps to a degree. This is the first step towards creating AI assistants that know everything about the user and can handle user data.
Such functionality will benefit from strong privacy protections, as Apple will try to process most Apple Intelligence requests on the iPhone, iPad, or Mac. If that’s impossible, the prompts get sent to Apple in a brand-new, state-of-the-art cloud AI processing system that protects user privacy (the Private Cloud Compute).
But before any of that can happen, Apple has to deal with the fallout of a Siri-related lawsuit from a few years ago. Apple has agreed to pay $95 million in a class action suit that alleged some Siri recordings sent to human evaluation contained sensitive voice data collected while the assistant was activated accidentally.
The case dates back to 2019. But with Apple agreeing to settle the suit, some people might be wondering about the privacy protections that Siri offers for advertising. After all, we’ve had conspiracy theories for years that smartphones listen to what you say and then surface ads based on your interests.
Apple issued a statement on Wednesday evening to remind its customers of its “longstanding privacy commitment with Siri.”
Apple made privacy an important feature for its devices years ago. This commitment to strong data protection for its hardware and software products came at a time when rivals were happy to collect all the data they could for advertising purposes. Apple’s privacy endeavors forced the likes of Google and Facebook to adapt their agendas and at least pretend that user privacy is important.
“Privacy is a foundational part of the design process, driven by principles that include data minimization, on-device intelligence, transparency and control, and strong security protections that work together to provide users with incredible experiences and peace of mind,” Apple said.
“This applies to all of our products and services, including Siri, which has been engineered to protect user privacy and is the most private digital assistant.”
The company then made it clear that Siri voice data is not used for marketing profiles or made available for ads:
Apple has never used Siri data to build marketing profiles, never made it available for advertising, and never sold it to anyone for any purpose. We are constantly developing technologies to make Siri even more private, and will continue to do so.
The statement also explains how Siri protects user privacy. Apple explained the assistant will use on-device processing whenever possible:
For example, when a user asks Siri to read unread messages, or when Siri provides suggestions through widgets and Siri search, the processing is done on the user’s device. The contents of the messages aren’t transmitted to Apple servers, because that isn’t necessary to fulfill the request. And for capable devices, the audio of user requests is processed entirely on device using the Neural Engine, unless a user chooses to share it with Apple.
Siri does collect data from some requests, with Apple explaining the assistant uses as little data as possible:
Siri searches and requests are not associated with your Apple Account. A random identifier — a long string of letters and numbers associated with a single device — is used to keep track of data while it’s being processed, rather than tying it to a user’s identity through their Apple Account or phone number — a process that we believe is unique among digital assistants in use today.
Apple also teased the arrival of the smarter Siri in Apple Intelligence, explaining how the Private Cloud Compute servers protect the privacy of Siri interactions that require server-side AI processing:
For Apple Intelligence requests that require access to larger models, Private Cloud Compute extends the privacy and security of iPhone into the cloud to unlock even more intelligence. When Siri uses Private Cloud Compute, a user’s data is not stored or made accessible to Apple, and Private Cloud Compute only uses their data to fulfill the request.
While Apple’s statement concerns the conspiracies tied to its Siri settlement, it couldn’t have come at a better time. We’re entering a computing era in which AI products like ChatGPT and Gemini will have more advanced capabilities, including voice data processing. Strong privacy will be a key element in all of this, and Apple should set the tone.
