Apple has always taken the privacy and security of its users very seriously. The company has repeatedly made it clear that it does not store or share any critical personal information of its users with third-parties.
With the introduction of new features like Live Photos and always-on Hey Siri on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, though, many people once again started raising their fingers on Apple’s stance on the privacy of their data. Apple has now explained to TechCrunch in detail on how it will handle the data related to these two new features.
The company says that Live Photos are treated just like any other photo, which means that they are encrypted by default. Plus, Live Photos record the 1.5 second before and after part of a photo only when the camera shutter button is pressed by the user. Otherwise, all the buffered data by the camera is discarded.
“Although the camera is “recording” while you’re in Live Photo mode, the device will not save the 1.5 seconds before until you press the camera button,” says Apple. “The pre-captured images are not saved to the user’s device nor are they sent off the device.”
The always-on Hey Siri functionality on the new iPhones have raised a bigger privacy concern for many. For this, Apple says that at no point or in under any circumstances, the new iPhones records or send any information back to the company unless the feature is trigged by saying the command. What Apple does is simply compare the audio that is continuously heard by the microphone and then compare it to the pattern or model saved during the ‘Hey Siri’ setup process. Until there is a match, all the audio is discarded by Apple. By matching the voice being heard by the microphone to a pattern, Apple is able to make sure that ‘Hey Siri’ only responds to the voice of the iPhone’s owner.
Once the user triggers the ‘Hey Siri’ functionality, the command is sent to Apple along with a random identifier. It is this data that Apple uses for further improving Siri, but since there is a random identifier attached to it, its not possible for the company to track it back down to the user. If a user turns off Siri though, all the Siri related user data related to that random identifier will also be deleted.
In this day and age where most companies are always behind extracting as much data possible from their users, it is definitely great to see Apple’s stance on privacy and sticking to it despite adding new features.
[Via TechCrunch]
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