Apple

There’s been a bit of a panic on social media lately. People are freaking out about Siri sending data from all their apps to third parties. There are videos on TikTok and Instagram, and social media posts on all the main services altering people to this threat to their privacy. I spotted this post on Bluesky; I’ve obfuscated the user name and profile picture to not embarrass this person:

So, let’s look at this. Apple snuck this in “last night.” This post on Bluesy was made on January 14, and the last update was on January 6.

And, OMG, “My garage app, my BANKING APPS, others had that turned on automatically.” We’ll get to that in a minute.

As to this specific feature, it’s not new; it has been on the iPhone since iOS 9, and has been enhanced over the years. The basics of what Apple called, at the time, Siri Intelligence are:

“Proactive assistance presents the most relevant information without compromising users’ privacy and suggests actions at a particular moment — even before you start typing — automatically suggesting apps to launch or people to contact based on usage patterns, and notifying you when you need to leave for appointments, taking into account traffic conditions. iOS 9 can even learn what you typically listen to in a certain location or at a particular time of day, so when you plug in headphones at the gym or hop in the car before work, it can automatically display playback controls for your preferred app.”

The poster was panicking because people on social media are claiming that that this setting iOS to snarf up data and send it to third parties. I’m loathe to link to the Daily Mail, a British newspaper that is far from the newspaper of record, but on January 9, they said:

"iPhone users have been warned of two settings that sneakily allow third party apps and websites to access your data.

“These settings allow your iPhone to share data that helps third parties target advertisements to you and measure advertisement engagement.”

This is false. Here’s why.

The setting in question, Learn from this app, allows Siri to learn a number of things when you use apps. For example, Siri learns which apps you use at which time of day and which apps you use often. You can see the results of this in two ways:

From any Home Screen, pull down and look at the Siri Suggestions at the top of the screen. Tap Show More to see an additional line of four apps, or tap Show Less to hide the second line.

Or, add a Siri Suggestions widget to one of your home screens, where you’ll see eight apps. If you check this during the day, you’ll notice that the apps will change a bit, reflecting your use over time. (To be fair, I don’t know why the Xbox app is first on my iPhone; I don’t use it much.)

Finally, none of this data goes to third parties. Some of it is stored encrypted in your iCloud account, so it can be shared with your other Apple devices. But Siri is not reading data from your banking app. As Apple says:

“Your Siri settings and Siri Suggestions personalization will sync across your Apple devices using end-to-end encryption if you use iCloud. If you have set up Siri, a small sample of your requests will also sync using end-to-end encryption to improve personalized Siri recognition on each device. The personalized speech recognition models and your interactions with Siri and Dictation that are performed on device may leverage your on-device information to improve accuracy and model performance. The status of your nearby timers, alarms, shared media, and, if you opted in to Personal Requests on HomePod, phone call status, from your device and the proximity of such device may be shared locally with your nearby Apple devices for others to be able to control them from your nearby devices with Siri enabled.”

In the same document, Apple later says:

“You can see and control the full list of features that Siri personalizes and apps that Siri suggests shortcuts for in Settings > Siri. To stop apps from contributing information to personalize Siri, go to Settings > Siri > Apps > [app name], then tap to turn off Learn from this App. To stop app clips from contributing information to personalize Siri, go to Settings > Siri > App Clips and tap to turn off Learn from App Clips.”

The setting that people are saying to change

The setting in question is well hidden within Apple’s operating systems. To access it on an iPhone or iPad, go to Settings, then tap either Siri or, if you have a device that can run Apple’s new AI features, Apple Intelligence & Siri. Swipe down to the bottom of the screen and tap Apps.

You now see all the apps on your device. Tap one to see its settings:

All apps show the first setting and the last two in the screenshot above, but some have an additional setting. Here, for the Contacts app, you can turn off contact suggestions when you’re typing.

Finding this setting on macOS is difficult, and it looks like Apple made a mistake in its System Settings app. As with the iPhone and iPad, you go to the Siri or Apple Intelligence & Siri settings, but when you get there, you don’t see any settings for apps.

You need to click About Siri, Dictation & Privacy, at which point you see this dialog:

You can then make changes to this setting for some, but not all of the apps on your Mac.

The only real reason to turn the setting off for individual apps is if you don’t want to see them when you search or in the Siri Suggestions widget, though you can also just toggle off Suggest App to keep apps from showing in these locations.

How Siri Intelligence has changed over the years

Over the years, Apple has modified Siri Intelligence features. In the iPhone User Guide for iOS 12 on the Apple website (for some reason, I can’t find a US English version of this, so I will link to the UK version), says:

“Glance at the Lock screen or start a search: As Siri learns your routines, you get suggestions for just what you need, at just the right time. For example, if you frequently order coffee mid morning, Siri may suggest your order near the time you normally place it.”

This is the main use of this “Learn from this app” feature. But this features has other uses:

• Create email and events: When you start adding people to an email or calendar event, Siri suggests the people you included in previous emails or events.
• Receive calls: If you get an incoming call from an unknown number, Siri lets you know who might be calling—based on phone numbers included in your emails.
• Leave for an event: If your calendar event includes a location, Siri assesses traffic conditions and notifies you when to leave.
• Type: As you enter text, Siri can suggest names of movies, places—anything you viewed on iPhone recently. If you tell a friend you’re on your way, Siri can even suggest your estimated arrival time.

All of these are still available in iOS 18, as per the iPhone User Guide, but the key feature is described a bit more succinctly:

“Glance at the Lock Screen or start a search: As Siri learns your routines, you get suggestions for just what you need, at just the right time.”

To be fair, calling this “Siri” is somewhat incorrect. Users generally see Siri as the feature on an Apple device that responds to commands and requests. But Siri is actually an integral part of Apple operating systems and goes far beyond that rudimentary chatbot.

What Apple has gotten wrong

It’s clear that this “Learn from this app” setting is vague, and it’s understandable that people may misunderstand it. Not many people will read the Siri, Dictation & Privacy document, from which I have cited above. And even if they do, it’s not well explained.

But the bigger problem is that when misinformation circulates on social media and in newspapers, people panic rather than trying to find out if it is true. It’s not a good idea to trust some random TikToker or poster on Instagram or Bluesky, because they are not savvy enough to understand what is going on.

So, yes, I think Apple should make this setting clearer, but the panic over this feature, which has been in Apple operating systems for nine years, is unwarranted.

How can I learn more?

Each week on the Intego Mac Podcast, Intego’s Mac security experts discuss the latest Apple news, security and privacy stories, and offer practical advice on getting the most out of your Apple devices. Be sure to follow the podcast to make sure you don’t miss any episodes.

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About Kirk McElhearn