Clarification on Privacy Infringement Allegations
"Designed to Protect User Personal Information"
"'Apple Intelligence' Also Does Not Store Data"
Apple stated on the 8th regarding allegations of personal information collection by its AI voice assistant 'Siri' that "information shared by users with Siri is never shared with advertisers."
Earlier, Apple submitted a preliminary settlement amounting to $95 million (approximately 140 billion KRW) to the court in a class-action lawsuit over Siri's personal information leakage in the United States.
According to the settlement, consumers who used Apple devices equipped with Siri from September 17, 2014, until last year can receive a settlement amount of $20 (approximately 30,000 KRW) per device. In response, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission also announced plans to review the entire process of Siri's voice recognition operation.
As the controversy grew, Apple issued a statement asserting that users' conversations with Siri are not used for advertising. An Apple representative said, "Apple's Siri was designed from the outset to protect users' personal information," adding, "Siri data has never been used to build marketing profiles, nor has it ever been sold to third parties for any purpose."
They continued, "The settlement was reached to move past concerns about third-party grading (quality evaluation process) that were already resolved in 2019," and explained, "We remain committed to continuously developing technologies to more closely protect personal information related to Siri."
Apple has consistently denied claims that Siri recordings were used for targeted advertising during the ongoing lawsuit. According to Apple, conversations between users and Siri are never shared with advertisers, and Siri data has never been used to build marketing profiles or sold to others.
In particular, Apple’s proprietary AI technology, 'Apple Intelligence,' uses private cloud computing, so user data is neither stored nor shared with the company, according to Apple.
Apple also stated that Siri rarely uses user data to provide more accurate results. For example, when a user asks about a sports event, Siri uses general location data. If asked about the nearest grocery store, more specific location data is used to that extent.
When a user asks Siri to read unread messages, it simply instructs the device to read the unread messages aloud without sending the data to the server, Apple explained.
According to Apple, during data processing, data tracking is done without linking data to an individual's identity, using a random identifier?a long string of letters and numbers related to a single device. Apple claims this is a differentiated process among currently available digital virtual assistant services. Additionally, to enhance protection, the connection between the random identifier and device data is severed after six months.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
