Apple Highlights Privacy Commitment After Settling Siri Spying Lawsuit

[MacRumors]

Apple today reiterated its commitment to Siri privacy, making it clear that Siri data has never been used to build marketing profiles, nor has any Siri information been made available to advertisers or sold for any purpose.

Apple's newsroom post comes after it settled a class action lawsuit related to Siri for $95 million. Plaintiffs accused Apple of recording conversations captured after accidental Siri activations, and then sharing information from those conversations with third-party advertisers.

Two plaintiffs claimed that after speaking about products like Air Jordan shoes and Olive Garden, their Apple devices showed ads for those products, while another said he received ads for a surgical treatment after discussing it privately with his doctor.

There has never been any indication that Apple shared Siri recordings, and Apple told MacRumors in a statement earlier this week that the lawsuit was settled to avoid additional litigation.

In its full privacy overview, Apple goes into detail on the Siri privacy protections that are in place to keep user data safe. Apple uses on-device Siri processing wherever possible, and minimizes the amount of data that's collected as much as possible.

Siri searches and requests are not associated with an Apple Account and cannot be linked to an individual user, with Apple instead using a random identifier to keep track of data as it's processed.

Apple says that it does not retain audio recordings of Siri interactions unless users explicitly opt in to help improve Siri, and even then, recordings are used just for that purpose.

Article Link: Apple Highlights Privacy Commitment After Settling Siri Spying Lawsuit

 

[EllieCat]

One time I talked about medical insurance, and boom, United Healthcare ad in my face? Is this really true?

 

[JosephAW]

Facebook admitted to this years ago

 

[I7guy]

Apple must be trying to dispel the MacRumor's rumors due to blowback from settling a lawsuit. I don't believe the sell the information.

 

[JosephAW]

Unfortunately disassociating Siri responses to your device will cause it to be dumber than a bag of rocks.

 

[magenheimerdp]

I would like to know how Apple ensures that third party apps, like Facebook, are prevented from listening in. We've disabled microphone access to all apps and yet there have still been cases of ads showing up related to something we discussed privately at home. Has one or more developers found a way around the API protections?

 

[Exile714]

I would like to know how Apple ensures that third party apps, like Facebook, are prevented from listening in. We've disabled microphone access to all apps and yet there have still been cases of ads showing up related to something we discussed privately at home. Has one or more developers found a way around the API protections?

If it were possible, whistleblowers would be all over it. There would be a lawsuit for sure. It’s not possible to hide such activity from people with tech expertise.

Most people think the only way an ad company can know something is that it’s listening to you. But the algorithms are fairly clever. Things one person searches can be combined with something a second person searches on the same WiFi network, and the two pieces of info lead to a conclusion about their life that might seem suspiciously like they’re listening to you.

 

[ronno]

Which apps are listening all the time?

 

[TheBWolf]

Facebook admitted to this years ago

Yeah, but Facebook's entire business model is selling your data to advertisers. It's what they do. Job 1.

 

[surferfb]

If it were possible, whistleblowers would be all over it. There would be a lawsuit for sure. It’s not possible to hide such activity from people with tech expertise.

Most people think the only way an ad company can know something is that it’s listening to you. But the algorithms are fairly clever. Things one person searches can be combined with something a second person searches on the same WiFi network, and the two pieces of info lead to a conclusion about their life that might seem suspiciously like they’re listening to you.

This. In addition, they’d be breaking wiretapping laws, it’d be a massive technical undertaking that would destroy the company if it ever leaked, probably send CEOs to jail, and most importantly, they don’t need to listen.

Your apps aren’t spying on you via your microphone. But they are spying on you.

This article does a pretty good job of explaining why this happens.

Side note: I have an acquaintance who is high up at one of these data companies. He once told me that he thinks that if the general public understood how much data they were getting from people’s devices there would be be actual protests in the streets.

 

[TheBWolf]

If it were possible, whistleblowers would be all over it. There would be a lawsuit for sure. It’s not possible to hide such activity from people with tech expertise.

Most people think the only way an ad company can know something is that it’s listening to you. But the algorithms are fairly clever. Things one person searches can be combined with something a second person searches on the same WiFi network, and the two pieces of info lead to a conclusion about their life that might seem suspiciously like they’re listening to you.

This exactly. People think their devices are listening to them precisely because they fail to understand just how much these companies don't need to listen to you.

 

[Pakaku]

Most people think the only way an ad company can know something is that it’s listening to you. But the algorithms are fairly clever. Things one person searches can be combined with something a second person searches on the same WiFi network, and the two pieces of info lead to a conclusion about their life that might seem suspiciously like they’re listening to you.

And how is that any better than actually listening on someone

 

[surferfb]

And how is that any better than actually listening on someone

Well, it doesn’t break wiretapping laws for starters.

Remember these companies almost certainly have thousands and thousands of data points on you and people you spend time with. Including detailed location data, what you search for, websites you have accounts for, your birthday, your spouse’s birthday etc.

They literally don’t need to listen to you. Actions speak louder than words. If I’m looking for a birthday present for my wife, I’m going to be searching for ideas, not talking to her about it. You casually mention you’re interested you’d like to learn how to golf and your wife googles “how much do golf lessons cost”. Now you both get golf ads.

Everyone think it’s because their smartphones are listening but it is actually significantly more invasive.

 

[neuropsychguy]

If it were possible, whistleblowers would be all over it. There would be a lawsuit for sure. It’s not possible to hide such activity from people with tech expertise.

Most people think the only way an ad company can know something is that it’s listening to you. But the algorithms are fairly clever. Things one person searches can be combined with something a second person searches on the same WiFi network, and the two pieces of info lead to a conclusion about their life that might seem suspiciously like they’re listening to you.

I understand this but it's still a little unsettling when I talk about something at home I've never looked up online or talked about before and ads pop up on Instagram within hours or a day. This has happened 5 times in the past several years. I know for a fact that no one in my household searched for what was talked about. I also run network wide ad blocking (Pi Hole with both local and DNS blocking) with additional browser blocking on all devices.

These events are most likely just coincidence but having had it happen that many times makes it not seem like one.

I do have an Echo Dot at home though so it's possible data is leaking from that.

 

[ChrisA]

Here is my best guess at what happened.

Apple really does not and never did sell Siri data. But, we don't need Siri for this to happen. All that is needed is an open microphone that sends audio data to a third-party app. Then that app sends the data to a server that listens to the words and sells the data.

The best way to do this is that I write an app called "Free Kiddie Porn" and you download it. It works and you get photos of naked kids but the app also connects the microphone and sends "everything". Even if you find out what it is doing you are very unlikely to complain about it because you'd have to admit to downloading the app.

Or perhaps the app was only supposed to monitor stock prices and give you buy and sell alerts. Either way, they tricked you and what they really wanted was the audio data.

Then along comes some "computer expert" and claims it must be Apple selling Siri data "because I can't think of any other way this can happen." This is as bad as arguing that space aliens build Stone Hedge because "I can't think of any other way it could have been built." It is surprising how many people accept ignorance as proof.

BTW, Apple put an end to most of this because now IOS only gives an app access to the microphone if you opt-in. This was not always the case.

 

[platinumaqua]

pihole block logs show Apple devices are really chatty to their analytics/telemetry servers

Also recent built-in apps started having unique user identifiers that track usage (like Google's apps). Why bother adding them if they weren't planning to use it for something else?

 

[Jeeve Stubbs]

I will only say this: settling to avoid further litigation is not like Apple and may seem suspicious to some people, while others who only read the newstitle will conclude that Apple has admitted to wrongdoing.

 

[Tagbert]

And how is that any better than actually listening on someone

The point is to get angry about the right thing and the right people doing that thing. Getting angry about something else isn’t doing you any good.

 

[Sami13496]

One time I talked about medical insurance, and boom, United Healthcare ad in my face? Is this really true?

If it was on your mind, you probably Googled it within a few days. Or searched for it on one of Meta’s platforms. Or on some other service that sells data to advertisers. But you did it so naturally that you didn’t even notice, and you only remember talking about it.

 

[TonyC28]

If Siri was really spying on all of us 24/7 she would probably be a heck of a lot better than she is. So I believe Apple here.

 

[tonywalker23]

1. I'm not an expert so this is all armchair QB-ing...

2. I wish the court stuff would get the oxygen sensor working in new watches. my series 6 is dead and I feel like upgrading is also a downgrade.

3. I'm sure there are safety things that are amazing and my little mind wouldn't be able to follow the tech. BUT, I have to believe based on history and common people taken advantage of that one day 50-75 years from now there's at least a 0.00001% chance that we were under surveillance waaaayyyy more than we realize.

4. I'm a die hard fanboy and have been in these forums going into my 22nd year… but I have enough understanding of the human heart to know, that it is at least possible for a company to say one thing, swear it's the truth, and do the opposite. I love Apple, I worked at Apple, and everyday I use Apple tools… but they aren't above the same thing that we are capable of doing every single day.

5. I've tried finding it and can't… but I remember not long after the iPhone first came out, there was a thread. I think it was in the official Apple help forums but I could be wrong. But, it was photos people posted from their camera roll saying they didn't take the picture—it took it on its own. The ones I remember most were ones where a phone was sitting in a car in the seat or cupholder far away from the users hand yet pics still taken. From what I remember, the thread blew up fast and went away fast.

6. I keep all my devices up to date and I know exactly what devices I have. there's no old Mac or iPad sitting in a drawer. Yet, I recently had some list in Reminders show back up that have been deleted a very long time (years). The tasks were not there, but the lists were. I have two MacBooks, two iPads, a watch, and a phone. Around Jan 1 I erased and reset them all and started 2025 with all fresh OS installs. Never restore from a backup, ever. Always start from scratch so everything is coming from the servers. How did those long ago deleted Reminders lists show back up?

And finally, 7. As I said, I am dumb compared to most of y’all, and I don’t have the tech knowledge to know the nuts and bolts of all that went down. And, I am not the crowd that reads a headline and goes crazy. I also am not a fanboy to the point that I defend Apple when I also don’t have a clue what I'm taking about. BUT, I have to think there was more going on with that old photos showing up in very rare circumstances than was the storyline. I don’t know what. But as the old folk would say, "something about that aint right."

After reading Ed Snowden's memoir, I wouldn't be shocked by anything.

 

[BGPL]

The information you can get from referrer URLs and Cookies alone. That's old tech but still it'll getcha.

 

[XboxEvolved]

So did these people try to sue Facebook, Google, Amazon, or Microsoft? Would make more sense. And yeah, Facebook along with Google is definitely listening in to what people are saying. I don't gaf what anyone says about "technical expertise" and to the guy that said if it were found out this were all true, CEOs would go to jail, all I have to say in response to that is, "lol".

 

[Apleeseed84]

This. In addition, they’d be breaking wiretapping laws, it’d be a massive technical undertaking that would destroy the company if it ever leaked, probably send CEOs to jail, and most importantly, they don’t need to listen.

Your apps aren’t spying on you via your microphone. But they are spying on you.

This article does a pretty good job of explaining why this happens.

Side note: I have an acquaintance who is high up at one of these data companies. He once told me that he thinks that if the general public understood how much data they were getting from people’s devices there would be be actual protests in the streets.

They do spy via microphones. I watch x rated content on my iPad with my iPhone next to me and next thing you know when I watch Facebook reels, the forced ad at the end of the video will legit blast x rated ads like escort services and explicit videos. Sorry for getting personal but I tried messaging Facebook reporting the ads because they are insanely annoying, and they told me there was nothing wrong with them. I literally keep my devices separate for that reason and no I do not have the Facebook app on my iPad, just the iPhone.

I tried legit shutting down my apps and now they focus on other ads, but dude, they are either psychic or are spying on my "private" browsing.

PS, no I have never been to an escort site, but they will recommend these massaging fake URl websites that in no way will get my attention.

 

[Silverado]

6. I keep all my devices up to date and I know exactly what devices I have. there's no old Mac or iPad sitting in a drawer. Yet, I recently had some list in Reminders show back up that have been deleted a very long time (years). The tasks were not there, but the lists were. I have two MacBooks, two iPads, a watch, and a phone. Around Jan 1 I erased and reset them all and started 2025 with all fresh OS installs. Never restore from a backup, ever. Always start from scratch so everything is coming from the servers. How did those long ago deleted Reminders lists show back up?

Do you use iCloud? Were Reminders sync’d to iCloud? Many apps can sync their data to iCloud if you let them and getting the data back from iCloud wouldn’t involve a step called “restore for backup”.