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Earlier this year, it was discovered that Apple hired contractors to listen to a small percentage of anonymized Siri recordings to evaluate the virtual assistant’s responses with the purpose of improving accuracy and reliability.
The Guardian revealed that Apple employees working on Siri often heard confidential details while listening to the audio recordings. Apple was subsequently criticized for not making it clear to customers that some of their Siri recordings were being used to improve the service.
Soon after the report, Apple suspended its Siri grading practices and promised users that it would introduce tools in a forthcoming update that would allow them to opt out of sharing their audio recordings.
With the release of iOS 13.2 in October, those new tools arrived. Apple now includes an option on iPhone and iPad that allows users to delete their Siri and Dictation history and opt out of sharing audio recordings. The following steps show you how to do both.
How to Opt Out of Siri Audio Sharing
- Launch the Settings app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
- Scroll down and tap Privacy.
- Scroll to the bottom of the Privacy screen and tap Analytics & Improvements.
- If you don’t want to let Apple review your recordings, toggle off the switch next to Improve Siri Dictation.
Note that you can tap the link under the toggle for more information relating to Apple’s Siri analytics policy.
How to Delete Your Siri Audio History
- Launch the Settings app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
- Scroll down and tap Siri & Search.
- Tap Siri & Dictation History.
- Tap Delete Siri & Dictation History.
Apple will inform you that your request was received and that your Siri and dictation history will be deleted. That’s all there is to it.
In addition to these new Siri and Dictation-related privacy features, Apple also says it is making further changes to its human grading process that will minimize the amount of data that reviewers have access to.
