Apple should provide an option to opt-out of Siri "learn from app" for ALL applications.
At present, this must be done individually for every app, https://www.imore.com/how-stop-siri-learning-how-you-use-app.... When you later install new apps after setting up the device, you have to remember to go into Settings and opt-out again, for every app, forever.
How many people know that iOS devices will default to Siri reading plaintext for all apps, including E2EE messengers?
“Siri” (whatever it has morphed into) is a pervasive DWIM engine in iOS these days. When you do a search for an app Siri decides what to display (e.g. when I go to a certain location with a “smart” lock and pull down search, the app for that lock is always offered first, but never in other locations).
These days the voice part is just a UI mode. I use it on my watch and occasionally on my phone when I am wearing earbuds and my phone is in my pocket, but have it disabled on my Mac.
I'd be happy to have a voice assistant that was actually smart. Every few months I ask Siri if it's powered by a language model yet. So far it hasn't even been able to understand the question.
I'm also in the situation where I use Siri for nothing, but I want to use CarPlay. I don't use the voice control for anything, in the car or otherwise. How does it make sense to force me to have Siri enabled?
There's a bunch of parts of CarPlay which assume you can use Siri. Interacting with notifications, sending / responding-to messages, searching for things in maps, etc. Apple could disable everything that would kick itself out to a Siri-interaction for input, but that'd probably feel confusingly-broken.
I've been using it for many years now, multiple installations on new macs and I've never seen such a thing.
I can only think it must be something specific to your setup.
Looking at the version I presently have installed, there is an Account menu and it says "sign in...", so I'm clearly not signed in.
Managed Apple ID seems to be some sort of MDM-style thing[1] , I've certainly never done that and no idea how it works ! I have always just used Apple Configurator in plain-vanilla mode.
Ah, I understand my confusion now. I was trying to use the iOS version of the app. I'm using the macOS version now with my iPhone connected and it's working. Thanks for the advice! :D
>How many people know that iOS devices will default to Siri reading plaintext for all apps, including E2EE messengers?
Is there more on what Siri "learn from app" actually does? Does it scrape entire screen contents? Or just metadata? Or only what the app developer decides to send?
My understanding is that the "learn from app" setting relates to it watching out for NSUserActivity, which is something the app developer has to explicitly send out. The app developer is motivated to do so because NSUserActivity powers a lot of system-integration features.
“The user is given the option to enable or not enable Siri, Apple's virtual assistant. But enabling only refers to whether you use Siri's voice control. Siri collects data in the background from other apps you use, regardless of your choice, unless you understand how to go into the settings and specifically change that”.
A concern with Siri is it sends your voice data to a server to parse. When Siri is disabled, what data is collected via third party apps? I would imagine any time you use voice as a command in an app the iPhone send the data to a server to parse, even in third party apps. Is that the concern, or is it other data?
"Siri" is not just the voice assistant, Apple also uses that designation for other "intelligent" features, like "Siri Suggestions" [0]. The related personal information is shared across devices via Apple servers. Apple states that any analytics shared with Apple are anonymized [1], but users may still prefer to not share analytics in the first place. However, that can't be opted out globally, it can only be disabled per app [0]. Except maybe by turning off Siri in iCloud [2]? It's not clear. That's the criticism, it's difficult for users to understand what settings are enabling or disabling what exactly. It's quite complicated overall, and difficult to tell what you are and aren't sharing.
Excellent. Then Apple can provide one-click, one-time opt out for all apps, instead of consuming CPU cycles, battery life and hundreds of avoidable and unwanted user actions over the lifetime of a phone.
> It never gets sent to Apple and no other application can read it.
Malware can read it. See the list of Apple iOS Security Updates.
If Apple doesn't receive the data and the user doesn't want the data, let's avoid collecting it.
> The idea that there is this demand to fully disable it is bizarre to me.
Apple provides a setting to disable Siri. It does not function as users expect. Either remove the setting and state that users are forced to use Siri, or improve the usability.
> Users want to be able to search for apps, contacts, mail etc which is why it’s a standard feature of every operating system.
Typically an optional feature with one setting to disable it, e.g. people have long disabled Windows Indexing to improve performance and battery life. Or to use a 3rd-party search tool. Why was Siri ("AI") conflated with Spotlight (search) on iOS?
> If you have malware that can access the entire file system then reading a Siri search index is the least of your troubles.
With malware that can access the entire file system, we don't want to provide a gift-wrapped search and user behavior index that has been quietly collected by Apple. Let malware do its own CPU-intensive rummaging through each app, increasing the odds of detection.
I never use this on Android really. If I look for a mail I search within outlook. And in fact emails in outlook don't show up in the global search, I just looked.
Same with contacts in the phone app. If I look for an app I just find the icon in the list because I don't have so many.
A global search is a cool feature for people who don't know where to look but it's not something that everyone would want.
I'm the opposite, universal search for everything. Want to open an app? Pull down and search. Want to find a message someone sent me? Pull down and search. Want to search the web? Pull down and search.
> A global search is a cool feature for people who don't know where to look
Not sure these people exist in enough numbers to justify a mention, or that the feature is primarily used by or useful to these supposed users.
The user is given the option to enable or not enable Siri, Apple's virtual assistant. But enabling only refers to whether you use Siri's voice control. Siri collects data in the background from other apps you use, regardless of your choice, unless you understand how to go into the settings and specifically change that,’ says Lindqvist.
Not condoning or anything, but perhaps the thinking is that, if the user can re-enabling siri at a later date, they don't want siri to start with no memory?
If/when a user actively consents to "learn from app", it's no different than setting up a new device, e.g. mail downloaded from IMAP server, data transferred from old device, or from cloud services.
The problem is that 'Siri' is a pretty ill-defined term that Apple sprinkles onto a bunch of unrelated features if they have anything that sort of looks like 'learning' if you squint hard enough.
> You can just disable Siri if you're that concerned?
Apple fights you from disabling Siri as much as they can. I've tried to disable Siri multiple times, but it turns off other unrelated features/services, so it's basically impossible.
For example, if you're using CarPlay, it's required that Siri is enabled, even if you don't use the voice controls.
At present, this must be done individually for every app, https://www.imore.com/how-stop-siri-learning-how-you-use-app.... When you later install new apps after setting up the device, you have to remember to go into Settings and opt-out again, for every app, forever.
How many people know that iOS devices will default to Siri reading plaintext for all apps, including E2EE messengers?