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A detailed look at how Apple Siri collects, stores, and uses your personal data.
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Apple Siri's privacy score of 40/100 reflects their data collection practices, transparency, incident history, and user control options. There is room for improvement in their privacy practices.
A 2019 whistleblower revealed that Apple contractors regularly listened to private Siri recordings, grading them for accuracy, and heard confidential medical details, drug deals, and people being intimate.
Apple admitted in 2019 that Siri could be accidentally triggered and record conversations without user intent, with the false activation rate being higher than publicly acknowledged.
In 2021, Apple settled a class-action lawsuit for undisclosed terms over Siri's unauthorized recordings, with plaintiffs alleging Siri captured private conversations that were shared with third parties.
A 2020 study found that Siri had the highest false activation rate among major voice assistants, meaning it was recording unintended audio more frequently than Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.
Apple's 2023 privacy disclosures revealed that even with the 'Improve Siri' setting disabled, some anonymized Siri data was still processed on Apple servers rather than entirely on-device as marketed.
While Siri is considered more private than competitors, meaningful data minimization is still important. On iPhone, go to Settings > Siri & Search. Disable 'Listen for Hey Siri' to prevent passive microphone listening. Disable 'Press Side Button for Siri' if you do not regularly use Siri. Turn off 'Allow Siri When Locked' to prevent access without authentication. Navigate to Settings > Siri & Search > Siri & Dictation History and delete your entire Siri history. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements and disable 'Improve Siri & Dictation' to prevent Apple from reviewing your voice recordings. With this off, Apple states no audio is stored, but some transcription data may still be processed. Review each app listed under Settings > Siri & Search and disable 'Learn from this App' and 'Show in Search' for apps you want to keep private. This prevents Siri from analyzing your usage patterns in those apps. For HomePod devices, open the Home app, press and hold the HomePod, go to Settings, and disable 'Listen for Hey Siri' when not needed. Disable 'Siri History' to prevent retention of requests made through HomePod. On Mac, go to System Settings > Siri & Spotlight and disable Siri entirely if you do not use it. If you do use Siri, disable Siri Suggestions in individual apps. For Apple Watch, go to Settings > Siri and disable 'Listen for Hey Siri' and 'Raise to Speak' to prevent false activations, which Apple has acknowledged occur more frequently than intended. Be aware that Siri queries made to Apple's servers use a random identifier rather than your Apple ID, which is better than competitors, but still involves sending voice data off-device. For maximum privacy, consider offline voice assistant alternatives like Mycroft or Home Assistant's local voice pipeline, which process everything on-device without any cloud connectivity.
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