Apple is making many of its services smarter in iOS 10 and macOS Sierra through the use of differential privacy which enables artificial intelligence to become smarter while still balancing privacy. Given Apple’s strong position on protecting user privacy, Recode requested more details on how the company’s use of differential privacy would work. Apple so far has resisted collecting a lot of user data that could make Siri, iCloud, and other services smarter.
Its use of differential privacy to collect some user data to improve its AI services will be totally opt-in, according to the new report, and hasn’t been used in services before iOS 10 and macOS Sierra. Apple also reiterated that it isn’t collecting user data in iCloud-stored photos to improve the AI behind its subject recognition in Photos. That’s why indexing photos happens separately on each device (like Mac, iPhone, and iPad) and object/facial recognition data isn’t synced. Craig Federighi used the example earlier this month that Apple can recognize what a mountain is on their own without using customer photos.
Recode also shared that Apple’s use of differential privacy is mostly limited in scope at launch:
Here’s an example of Apple detailing how differential privacy works with deep links in its iOS 10 documentation:
Apple also detailed these efforts in its official press release for iOS 10:
The report also clarifies other AI-driven efforts Apple already has underway that don’t rely on differential privacy at all. Proactive, for example, is a concept that matches much of what Google does through data collection but Apple relies on indexing data locally on the device without information ever being shared across the Internet. For example, iOS 9 started recommending calendar appointments based on information from email saved locally on your iPhone or iPad.
