Blog: Crisis Management

What does your Siri history say about you?

How would you feel if we told you that the phone a great deal of your employees are carting around has transmitted data listing every new place they’ve visited in the past several months? Oh, and it’s also copied every entry in their contact list and every web search they attempted. Breach of confidentiality, anyone? Those are exactly the type of fears organizations have to consider now, as information surfaces about just how Apple’s Siri voice-assistant software functions. Here are more details, from a CNN article by Wired’s Robert McMillan:

IBM CIO Jeanette Horan told MIT’s Technology Review this week that her company has banned Siri outright because, according to the magazine, “The company worries that the spoken queries might be stored somewhere.”

It turns out that Horan is right to worry. In fact, Apple’s iPhone Software License Agreement spells this out: “When you use Siri or Dictation, the things you say will be recorded and sent to Apple in order to convert what you say into text,” Apple says. Siri collects a bunch of other information — names of people from your address book and other unspecified user data, all to help Siri do a better job.

How long does Apple store all of this stuff, and who gets a look at it? Well, the company doesn’t actually say. Again, from the user agreement: “By using Siri or Dictation, you agree and consent to Apple’s and its subsidiaries’ and agents’ transmission, collection, maintenance, processing, and use of this information, including your voice input and User Data, to provide and improve Siri, Dictation, and other Apple products and services.”

Apple’s brand loyalty is so strong that there is pretty much zero chance its fans are going to cast their iPhones aside. Apple would probably be wise however, to develop a way to disable the storing of Siri inquiries, at least on enterprise networks, before the threat of private information being exposed pushes corporate buyers toward competing products.. Policies like the one IBM adopted seem well-tuned to meeting the needs of both business and employee, at least for the time being, allowing individuals to keep their phone of choice while restricting access to the point of vulnerability.

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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]