Ask Siri, Dictation & Privacy

Siri is designed to protect your information and enable you to choose what you share.

When You Make Requests, Siri Sends Certain Data About You to Apple to Help Respond to Your Requests

When you use Siri and Dictation, the things you say and dictate will be sent to Apple to process your requests. In addition to these audio recordings, your device will send other Siri Data, such as:

• Contact names, nicknames, and relationships (for example, “my dad”), if you set them up in your contacts

• Music and podcasts you enjoy

• Names of your and your Family Sharing members’ devices

• Names of accessories, homes, scenes, and members of a shared home in the Home app

• Labels for items, such as people names in Photos, Alarm names, and names of Reminders lists

• Names of apps installed on your device and shortcuts you added through Siri

Your requests are associated with a random identifier, not your Apple ID.

Siri Data, which also includes computer-generated transcriptions of your Siri requests, is used to help Siri and Dictation on your iOS device and any Apple Watch or HomePod set up with your iOS device understand you better and recognize what you say.

Siri Data is associated with a random, device-generated identifier. This random identifier is not linked to your Apple ID, email address, or other data Apple may have from your use of other Apple services.

Siri Data and your requests are not used to build a marketing profile, and are never sold to anyone.

If you have Location Services turned on, the location of your device at the time you make a request will also be sent to Apple to help Siri and Dictation improve the accuracy of its response to your requests. To deliver relevant responses, Apple may use the IP address of your internet connection to approximate your location by matching it to a geographic region.

Only the Minimum Data Is Stored on Siri Servers

By default, Apple stores transcripts of your interactions with Siri and Dictation and may review a subset of these transcripts. You can opt in to have the audio of your interactions with Siri and Dictation stored and reviewed by Apple employees to develop and improve Siri and Dictation by going to Settings

Privacy > Analytics & Improvements and tapping to turn on Improve Siri & Dictation.

Your request history is associated with the random identifier for up to six months. Your request history may include transcripts, audio for users who have opted in to Improve Siri and Dictation, Siri Data, and related data such as device specifications, device configuration, performance statistics, and the approximate location of your device at the time the request was made. After six months, your request history is dissociated from the random identifier and may be retained for up to two years to help Apple develop and improve Siri, Dictation, and other language processing features like Voice Control. The small subset of requests that have been reviewed may be kept beyond two years, without the random identifier, for ongoing improvement of Siri.

When On-Device Dictation is enabled, general text Dictation will be processed on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch (Dictation in Search requires server- based processing). Using information stored on your device, On-Device Dictation can personalize your Dictation experience. On-Device Dictation can be enabled on certain devices by downloading a supported language model in Keyboards Settings. Some metrics about your On-Device Dictation usage will be sent to Apple as part of your request history. By default, your On-Device Dictation transcripts and audio are not sent to Siri servers. You can opt in to share this data with Apple to improve Siri and Dictation by going to Settings > Privacy > Analytics & Improvements and tapping to turn on Improve Siri & Dictation.

If you choose to allow third-party apps to integrate with Use with Siri, some data from these apps may be sent to Apple to help Siri understand your request, and portions of your request will be shared with the app to help provide a response or take an action (for example, send a message or book a ride). When Siri interacts with a third-party app on your behalf, you are subject to that app’s terms and conditions and privacy policy. If you choose to allow apps to use Siri for transcription, the voice data to be transcribed may be sent to Apple.

Your Siri settings will sync across your Apple devices using end-to-end encryption if you use iCloud. If you have set up Hey Siri, a small sample of your requests will also sync using end-to-end encryption to improve personalized Hey Siri recognition on each device. The personalized speech recognition models may leverage your on-device information to improve the model performance. To allow others to control your nearby timers, alarms, and shared media, the status of those items from your device and the proximity of such devices may be shared with your HomePod or Apple TV.

You Have Choice and Control

You can disable Ask Siri or Dictation at any time. To turn off Ask Siri, go to Settings > Siri & Search, then tap to turn off “Listen for ‘Hey Siri’” and “Press Home or Side Button for Siri.” To turn off Dictation, go to Settings > General > Keyboard, then tap to turn off Enable Dictation. If you turn off both Ask Siri and Dictation, Apple will delete Siri Data that is associated with the random identifier.

You can delete request history associated with a random identifier and retained for six months by going to Settings > Siri & Search > Siri & Dictation History and tapping Delete Siri & Dictation History.

You can control which apps can integrate with Use with Siri at any time by going to Settings > Siri & Search > [app name] > Use with Siri.

You can turn off Location Services for Siri by going to Settings > Privacy > Location Services, selecting Siri & Dictation, and selecting Never.

If you do not want Siri personalization to sync across your devices, you can disable Siri by going to Settings > [your name] > iCloud, and tapping to turn off Siri.

You can also restrict the ability to use Siri & Dictation altogether by going to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > Allowed Apps and tapping Siri & Dictation.

You can control which apps use Siri for transcription in Settings > Privacy > Speech Recognition.

By using Siri or Dictation, you agree and consent to Apple’s and its subsidiaries’ and agents’ transmission, collection, maintenance, processing, and use of this information to provide and improve Siri and dictation functionality in Apple products and services. At all times, information collected by Apple will be treated in accordance with Apple’s Privacy Policy, which can be found at www.apple.com/privacy.

Information about products not manufactured by Apple, or independent websites not controlled or tested by Apple, is provided without recommendation or endorsement. Apple assumes no responsibility with regard to the selection, performance, or use of third-party websites or products. Apple makes no representations regarding third-party website accuracy or reliability. Contact the vendor for additional information.

Published Date: February 19, 2021

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