The Truth About Apple and Privacy

Published: Nov. 7, 2019, 12:21 p.m.

Apple started the year in privacy off with a colossal flex — Giant billboards across from January's CES show in Vegas saying what happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone. It was privacy by design. Privacy as a civil right.

That was quickly followed by a bug that could allow eavesdropping through FaceTime calls, an impressive array of new privacy protections including Sign in with Apple, HomeKit secure video and routers, increased tracking protection, private federated learning, and an anonymized new Find My network.

Then, a scandal involving Siri and letting humans, contractors even, listen to and grade customer voice recordings for quality assurance. An industry-wide practice-become-scandal, yes, but one unexpected and unacceptable given Apple's position on privacy, both moral and marketing.

Up, down, up, down. What was left was to make it right. And, Apple's doing that in two ways: A) With the release a week ago of new, fully disclosed opt-in grading process for Siri last week as part of iOS 13.2 and, B) the unveiling of a new, detailed privacy website including four new privacy-centric white papers.

So, let’s break it all down.

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