French prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into Apple over allegations that its voice assistant Siri collected and analyzed user recordings without proper consent. The probe has been entrusted to France’s cybercrime agency, the Paris prosecutor’s office has told Politico and Reuters.
The investigation follows a complaint filed in February by a French NGO, based on testimony from whistleblower Thomas Le Bonniec, a former employee of an Apple subcontractor, who says he listened to thousands of Siri recordings as part of quality-control work in 2019.
Le Bonniec reportedly worked for Globe Technical Services in Ireland, where he reviewed and annotated audio clips to help improve Siri’s accuracy. He told Politico that the material sometimes revealed “intimate moments and confidential information,” which could be used to identify users.
The whistleblower has welcomed the probe, saying it should allow “urgent questions to be answered,” including how many recordings were made since Siri’s launch and where the data is stored.
An Apple representative in France told Politico that the company “has never used Siri data to create marketing profiles, has never made it available for advertising and has never sold it to anyone for any reason whatsoever.”
Hellbound and Down 