You can finally control your Siri recordings and data

Privacy is a huge concern in our hyperconnected modern world. While smartphones offer incredible convenience and functionality, concerns have been raised as to how much of our data tech companies can access. With always-listening voice assistants, the issue is only more pressing. Thus, companies like Apple are taking measures to put control over privacy in user’s hands.

A huge step in this direction arrives with iOS 13.2 Beta, which finally offers the option to manage the data Apple’s virtual assistant Siri collects in a more direct way. The settings menu in the beta release contains a few new settings, including one labeled “Improve Siri and Dictation”, that allows you to opt out of having your recordings stored on Apple servers. However, as the name of the setting implies, this means potentially losing out on Siri’s performance.

If that seems too much for you, there is another new setting that might interest you. Under ‘Siri & Search”, “Delete Siri & Dictation” allows you to delete the data associated with your iPhone. This will reset anything Siri has learned about you, but any future interactions with the assistant will start rebuilding that data again.

This feature is not yet available on all iPhones, but once the iOS 13.2 beta release becomes stable, the new settings should start rolling out to everyone.