French Prosecutors Investigate Apple’s Siri for Unlawful Data Collection
The French Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation into Apple’s Siri voice assistant following allegations of unlawful data collection. The inquiry was prompted by a complaint from the Ligue des Droits de l’Homme (LDH), a French human rights organization, filed with the assistance of Thomas Le Bonnec, a former contractor for Apple. The complaint claims that Siri’s voice recognition system recorded, stored, and analyzed fragments of user conversations without obtaining explicit consent.
The case has been assigned to a cybercrime division, and while the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed the opening of the investigation, it declined to provide further details. Sources cited by Politico revealed that the probe focuses on events dating back to before 2019, when Apple employed third-party contractors to review Siri’s responses for quality control. During that period, portions of audio recordings were indeed transcribed manually under the pretext of “service improvement.”
Le Bonnec, now a whistleblower, explained that in practice, conversations were recorded even during accidental activations of the assistant, and users were largely unaware of the extent of data processing involved. He emphasized that the launch of a criminal investigation signals a broader shift — one where digital privacy concerns are no longer abstract, but rather a matter of fundamental rights.
Apple, in response, stated that it had overhauled Siri’s operational framework in 2019 and revised its privacy policy again in 2025. The company maintains that user data is now processed locally on devices, that audio recordings are not used for commercial purposes, and that they are neither sold to advertisers nor shared with third parties. In a statement published on its official website in January, Apple reaffirmed that all Siri requests are encrypted and decoupled from user accounts.
Despite these assurances, the LDH complaint once again raises questions about the transparency of voice assistant algorithms and the boundaries of permissible surveillance. French investigators now aim to determine whether Apple’s earlier practices may have violated national data protection laws and the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Support Our Threat Intelligence
If you find our technology report and cybersecurity news helpful, consider supporting our work.
Buy Me a Coffee
PayPal
