by Jason Snell
Apple announces Siri policy changes
Via a press statement, here’s Apple declaring that it’s changing its Siri sampling policies to be opt-in, transcript only by default, and handled by Apple employees rather than contractors:
- First, by default, we will no longer retain audio recordings of Siri interactions. We will continue to use computer-generated transcripts to help Siri improve.
Second, users will be able to opt in to help Siri improve by learning from the audio samples of their requests. We hope that many people will choose to help Siri get better, knowing that Apple respects their data and has strong privacy controls in place. Those who choose to participate will be able to opt out at any time.
Third, when customers opt in, only Apple employees will be allowed to listen to audio samples of the Siri interactions. Our team will work to delete any recording which is determined to be an inadvertent trigger of Siri.
It’s unfortunate that it took a salacious press report to drive this policy change, but these are exactly the right moves for Apple to make.
There’s a related tech note about Siri grading.