Apple explains how Siri Recap handles conversations it hears
What's the story
Apple has introduced a new feature called 'Siri Recap' with its latest Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 models. The innovative addition is part of the company's Audio Intelligence suite, which also includes Sound Recognition, Music Recognition, and Live Rewind. But what exactly does this always-listening device do? As the name suggests, it listens to your conversations throughout the day and takes notes.
Feature function
The goal of Siri Recap is to help users
The main aim of Siri Recap is to use Apple Intelligence to create ongoing summaries of conversations. These are designed to "jog your memory" about events, helping you stay present in the moment.
However, this always-listening capability has raised privacy concerns among users.
To address these worries, Apple has provided a detailed explanation of the privacy features integrated into Siri Recap.
Privacy protection
Siri Recap won't identify speakers or filter all sensitive information
Apple has assured that Siri Recap won't identify and attribute speakers in a conversation.
It will also omit potentially harmful content or sensitive data such as self-harm or hate speech, financial information, government-issued identifiers, authentication data, and certain personal identifiers.
The tech giant has also warned users that these summaries could be incomplete or inaccurate and may not filter all sensitive information.
Data processing
Summaries are sent to private cloud compute for processing
Siri Recap doesn't create a full transcript of conversations, but a summary similar to notes taken after a discussion.
Encrypted, condensed text versions of conversations are sent to Private Cloud Compute for processing.
This text is less than half the length of the original transcript and distills the conversation down to its core meaning by removing tone, non-essential language, filler words, and redundancies.
Audio security
Audio from conversations is sent to secure exclave
The audio from conversations is sent to the Secure Exclave on Apple Watch and iPhone for processing and analysis.
This data can't be accessed by the operating system, apps, user, or Apple. Plus, no audio is recorded or stored.
The final output is summarized and formatted using Apple Foundation Models running on Private Cloud Compute.
This data isn't accessible to Apple or anyone else, ensuring maximum privacy for users.
Feature control
How to use Siri Recap on Apple Watch?
Siri Recap can be activated via the Apple Watch app on iPhone, with options to schedule listening times.
Users can choose to have it active only during work hours or not at all at night.
Summaries are automatically deleted after seven days unless saved to the Siri app.
They can also be saved in the Siri app and deleted anytime from all synced devices, with an option for exporting saved summaries to other apps like Notes.