Siri, are you a blabbermouth?

I came across (by way of @teamcymru) an interesting article from Zack Whittaker on the implications of Apple’s hard-to-find privacy policy regarding Siri and Dictation data. (not that hard to find, fortunately: Whittaker dug up this document on the Apple site, which tells us that:

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, including your voice input and User Data, to provide and improve Siri, Dictation, and dictation functionality in other Apple products and services.

Siri and Dictation have very similar privacy policies that are only accessible, according to Whittaker, from “the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, and certain iPad models.”

I’m not suggesting that this is a cause for fear and loathing in Cupertino, but if you are concerned about what access Apple has and what use it might make of your user data, the article is a good starting point: Apple stores your voice data for two years. Now where did I put my iGadgets?

David Harley CITP FBCS CISSP