**Apple Confirms Siri Privacy Practices Following Lawsuit Settlement**
Apple has reaffirmed its dedication to Siri privacy in light of a recent lawsuit settlement that has raised new worries about the voice assistant purportedly listening in on users.
“Apple has never utilized Siri data to create marketing profiles, never made it accessible for advertising, and never sold it to anyone for any reason,” the company declared in an official statement released on Wednesday.
The announcement came in reaction to the conclusion of a class-action lawsuit first initiated in 2019. The case, which was resolved on December 31, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, claimed that Siri was unknowingly triggered on Apple devices without the wake word, resulting in private conversations being recorded and assessed by third-party contractors.
A submission from 2021 concerning the lawsuit indicated that plaintiffs reported discussing particular brands, including “Air Jordans” and “Olive Garden,” only to subsequently come across targeted advertisements for those brands in Apple Safari and third-party applications. This prompted the plaintiffs’ legal representatives to assert that Apple had sold Siri recordings to advertisers.
Nonetheless, Apple categorically rejected these allegations. While the company accepted that Siri recordings were shared with third-party contractors for quality assurance reasons in the past, it stressed that it has never sold Siri data for targeted advertising.
In light of the controversy and following an investigation, Apple updated its Siri quality control protocols in 2019. The firm made the program opt-in by default and restricted the sharing of anonymized Siri data to Apple personnel only. “Apple does not keep audio recordings of Siri interactions unless users explicitly opt-in to assist in enhancing Siri, and even then, the recordings are utilized solely for that intention. Users can effortlessly opt-out at any time,” the company clarified in its announcement.
While the notion of Siri surveilling users to deliver targeted ads may appear credible, there are other potential explanations for such incidents. For example, targeted advertisements can be shaped by detailed location tracking or shared network information. If you were conversing about Air Jordans with a friend who has recently bought a pair, you might encounter related ads due to proximity-based targeting instead of Siri recordings.
Apple’s affirmation of its privacy policies highlights its continuous efforts to tackle user concerns and uphold transparency regarding the management of Siri data.