Apple Won't Collect Your Data in iOS 10 Without Opt-In Consent

In order to make improvements to its artificial intelligence services, Apple will start collecting data in iOS 10; however, it won't do so without your opt-in consent.

Beginning this fall, Apple will use a technology called Differential Privacy to help discover the usage patterns of a large number of users without compromising individual privacy. In iOS 10, this technology will help improve QuickType and emoji suggestions, Spotlight deep link suggestions and Lookup Hints in Notes. Differential privacy aims to maximize the accuracy of queries from statistical databases while minimizing the chances of a record being identified.

Initially, differential privacy will be limited to four use cases: new words users add to their dictionaries, emojis typed by users, deep links inside apps, and lookup hints within notes.


Re/code has clarified some of the questions surrounding Apple's data collection and learned that it will require opt-in consent from the user.

● Differential data is making its debut with iOS 10 and Apple says it has not yet been collecting such data.
● The decision to allow Apple use of data will be up to the user and require their opt-in consent.
● Apple says it is not using iOS users’ cloud-stored photos to power the image recognition features in iOS 10, instead relying on other data sets to train its algorithms. (Apple hasn’t said what data it is using for that, other than to make clear it is not using its users photos.)

We'll be taking a closer look at the new features coming in iOS 10 before it launches in September. Please follow iClarified on Twitter, Facebook, or RSS for updates.

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