Only transmit geo location after Siri determined that it's needed

Originator:m.hanauska
Number:rdar://20925977 Date Originated:13-May-2015
Status:Behaves correctly Resolved:
Product:iOS Product Version:8
Classification:Security Reproducible:Always
 
Summary:
Right now you can either allow Siri to access the current geo location or you can deny it. If you deny it, no request requiring location is possible (e.g. I cannot ask Siri for a directions how to get somewhere), but when I enable it, then the geo location is accessed and transmitted with __every__ single request made, even if the request has nothing to do with anything that would require that location. Why can't the request be sent w/o location and only if Siri determines that it needs location to answer that request, the request is polled and then Siri can calculate the answer. The only drawback would be a tiny delay for one extra round trip, therefor over 90% of all Siri requests would probably not cause the location to be transmitted anymore.

Comments

Apple says: "Engineering has determined that this issue behaves as intended."

I replied:

"intended" by whom? Certainly not by me or any other user that cares about privacy. Yesterday, at the WWDC keynote, you gave a huge talk about data privacy and how the user has control over their data and all data stays in their hands. This is all blahblah is you transmit the user's location with every, really EVERY Siri request he makes, even if he just wants Siri to play some music, add a reminder, show some photos, all local actions that certainly don't need the location of the user to be answered/performed. The best way to protect a user's data is to only collect it is really required, as data that hasn't been collected cannot end up in the wrong hands or be otherwise abused. IMHO this is hypocritical if your CEO criticizes Google for collecting data and then praises the data privacy of Apple, yet such an easy change in behavior that would largely enhance privacy protection for all users (w/o any drawback for anyone) is simply ignored. Just FYI, I'm going to make this behavior public.

By m.hanauska at June 9, 2015, 8:26 a.m. (reply...)

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