Understand Siri and Your Privacy

How does Siri make its magic? It sends most of what you ask it to Apple where servers process your speech to return an answer. Here are answers to some common questions about what that means for your privacy.

Is Apple Keeping Track of What I Say?

Apple used to store Siri voice recordings—assigned a random, device-generated number, or identifier, as opposed to being associated with your name or Apple ID—in order to improve Siri’s performance. After 6 months, that data was disassociated from the identifier and then stored for up to 18 months more for testing.

However, in the summer of 2019, a whistleblower revealed that Apple contractors quality control regularly heard short snippets of sometimes very private conversations as part of their job providing quality control for Siri. The culprit was typically accidental activation of Siri on an Apple Watch or HomePod.

As a result, Apple made a number of changes to its policies. Now only Apple employees “subject to confidentiality obligations”—rather than contractors, as was the case before—review audio interactions. And most importantly, Apple no longer stores Siri audio recordings by default. Instead, users must opt in to help improve Siri.

You’re asked what you want to do when you first set up your device, upgrade to or enable Siri. On a Mac, go to System Preferences > Privacy, select Analytics & Improvements in the list, and take a look at the “Improve Siri & Dictation” setting. On an iOS device or iPad, go to Settings > Privacy > Analytics & Improvements to check your settings (Figure 84). The “Improve Siri & Dictation” setting should be off, by default.

Figure 84: By default, Apple does not store recordings of your interactions with Siri unless you opt in by toggling the “Improve Siri & Dictation” slider on.

So how does Apple improve Siri’s accuracy if it doesn’t listen to its exchanges? Apple now uses computer-generated transcripts of your interactions with Siri instead. Those transcripts are associated with a random identifier, rather than your name or Apple ID, for six months and then disassociated with the identifier and kept for up to two years.

To delete what’s there already, you must take action on each of your devices. Your devices must be running iOS 13.2, iPadOS 13.2, watchOS 6.1, or macOS Catalina 10.15.1 or later.

Delete iOS device and iPad Siri data

To delete all the information associated with your random identifier, go to Settings > Siri & Search > Siri & Dictation History and tap Delete Siri & Dictation History. Siri data is also deleted if you disable Siri altogether.

Delete Mac Siri data

To delete all the information associated with your random identifier, go to System Preferences > Siri and click the Delete Siri & Dictation button. A warning appears. To continue, click Delete. Siri data is also deleted if you disable Siri altogether in System Preference by deselecting “Enable Ask Siri.”

Delete Apple Watch Siri data

To delete all the information associated with your random identifier from this device, go to Settings > Siri > Siri & dictation History, and then tap Delete Siri & Dictation History.

Delete HomePod Siri data

To delete all the information associated with your random identifier, open the Home app on the associated iPhone or iPad, touch and hold the HomePod’s name, tap the Settings icon, tap Siri History, and tap Delete Siri History.

Does Siri Share Other Information About Me with Apple?

Siri does sends information about you—associating it, again, with a random identifier—to Apple, including names and relationships from your Contacts app, the names of songs in your Music library, the names of your photo albums (but not the photos themselves), what apps you have on your device, information from Calendar, and more. This helps Siri respond more accurately when you use it to make a phone call, play music, search photos, or create calendar events and reminders.

Here’s how it handles some other common types of data:

• Location data: If you have Location Services on, the location of your device is sent to Apple so it can send back results relevant to where you are (for instance, what movies are playing nearby). To turn off Location Service for Siri on your iOS device or iPad, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Siri & Dictation and select Never.

  Tip: Your iPhone keeps a local, encrypted record of places you go frequently. To see it, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Significant Locations. Authenticate yourself using your passcode, TouchID, or FaceID. Tap a place (like Berkeley, CA) under the History header to see a map with sub-locations and the number of visits to each one. Tap Clear History to erase significant locations. Toggle the Significant Locations slider off to stop your iPhone from collecting this data.

• Siri Search and Shortcut suggestions: Apple says that Siri’s analysis of how you use your apps happens on your device and that when this information syncs across your devices, it is encrypted end-to-end. Apple does gather generalized “topics of interest” (it gives the examples “cooking” and “basketball”) as well as suggestions you’ve selected to help process your request and make results more relevant. The company says this information is not associated with your identity.

  To pick and choose which apps’ info Siri learns from on your iOS device or iPad, go to Settings > Siri & Search, scroll down and toggle Siri & Suggestion on or off for each app in the list. On your Mac, go to System Preferences > Siri, click the Siri Suggestions & Privacy button, and then select or deselect apps from the list.

• Document and file searches: When you use Siri to search for documents on your Mac, Apple says the names and content of your documents stay local to your device.

One thing worth keeping in mind: Apple’s business model is not advertising-based like Google’s and Facebook’s, which removes some of the company’s incentive to gather and resell your data. Instead of giving away services for free, Apple gets your hard-earned money when you pay for your devices or purchase its services.

Will “Hey Siri” Devices Record My Conversations?

This is a reasonable question. In 2018, Alexa users discovered conversations unrelated to their Alexa queries were sitting on Amazon’s servers, registered to their names. (See USA Today’sHow to listen to what Amazon’s Alexa has recorded in your home.) According to Apple, Siri takes a different approach from its competition. While listening for “Hey, Siri” requests, your device stores a short buffer of audio locally and continually records over it. Only when the cue is registered does the device send voice data to Apple’s servers for processing—and that data is assigned a random user number, not labeled with your name, Apple ID, or phone number. And yet, in 2019, it turned out there were issues with Siri—on the Apple Watch and HomePod, in particular—sometimes recording people’s private life. (See Is Apple Keeping Track of What I Say?)

Apple no longer keeps Siri audio recordings by default, but if you just don’t like the idea of your devices listening to you—or you’re a doctor, lawyer, therapist or other person who can’t afford any risk—there’s an easy fix: turn off “Hey Siri” and instead Activate Siri By Touch.

Think about this on a device by device basis. If you use your iPhone in the car, using “Hey Siri” with it probably makes sense, but since your Apple Watch is already on your wrist, is it really any more convenient to use “Hey Siri” than to press the Digital Crown? Likewise, you might not like the idea of “Hey Siri” being active on the HomePod in your bedroom, but decide that being hands free while cooking is important enough to turn on “Hey Siri” for the HomePod in the kitchen.

Could Apps Hijack My Devices’ Microphones and Listen In?

Apple maintains that third-party apps can’t collect microphone data without explicit user consent and a “reasonably conspicuous” audio or visual indicator. If a company violates the privacy guidelines, its apps are removed from the App Store.

To see what apps have access to your microphone on your iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > Privacy > Microphone. You can revoke an app’s access here. On your Mac, go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy, and click Microphone to see a list of apps that have permission to use the microphone. Uncheck the box next to an app’s name to revoke its access.

Of course, there is always a chance that things go awry, as shown by a 2019 glitch in Apple’s own FaceTime app that made it possible to eavesdrop on calls. (See The New York Times article Apple Was Slow to Act on FaceTime Bug That Allows Spying on iPhones.) Apple goes into great detail about its privacy precautions in a letter to the US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee.