How Long Does Apple Keep Your Siri Data?

You may want to think twice about what you say to Siri, like all of that swearing, or asking it personal questions. A recent report from Wired questioned Apple's privacy policies, and surprisingly, Apple responded, although that probably created more cause for concern than anything else.

Apple now claims that they keep your Siri data for at least two years, although they say that they will disassociate you from your data after six months. This may sound a little scary, which is understandable. I wonder how many people reading this are thinking "I really wish I didn't say that to Siri..." 

When you talk to Siri, you are assigned a random number, not your UDID or Apple ID, that Apple's servers and Siri will use to identify you. This number is tagged in the files that are sent to Apple's servers as well when you speak to it. When disassociated from that file, that means that random number is removed from the file, allegedly leaving no way to identify where the file came from.

American Civi Liberties Union lawyer Nicole Ozer warned people that they should be careful with what they say to Siri, which the way things are looking right now, makes a lot of sense.

Transcripts "of what you say to Siri could reveal sensitive things about you, your family, or business...Siri works for Apple, so make a note to yourself to really think before you speak," Ozer said.

It really is quite interesting that Apple is keeping this data for such a long time. Something like this may really discourage some people from even using Siri. One problem I do have with all of this is the fact that Apple wasn't up front about this from day one. People deserve to know what is being done with their information. How could Apple clear this up? Displaying a message saying something along those lines when the user attempts to enable Siri. This way users wouldn't be left out of the loop like they have been ever since Siri came out on the iPhone 4S, which has since made its way onto many other Apple devices. 

Apple needs to be honest with its consumers, instead of trying to hide facts like this until they've been doing it for a while. 

So, with all of this coming out, you may want to refrain from asking Siri anything personal...hard to say what Apple could really be doing with that information.