Opting Out of “Help Apple Improve Search”
Apple has recently shown a noticeable tendency to collect, gather, transmit, and sometimes even store privacy-sensitive data – despite repeatedly emphasizing the importance of protecting such data and ensuring it remains solely on the user’s device.
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macOS Sequoia introduces another new feature labelled Help Apple Improve Search, which sends and stores various search queries from Safari, Spotlight, and other sources to improve search results.
This feature, too, is enabled by default and is well hidden at the very bottom of System Settings > Spotlight.
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Even if the data sent is not directly linked to me as a person, the data itself may contain information I might not want to share with third parties.
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It’s worth noting that the new option in System Settings only governs the storage of this data, not its transmission to Apple. If Include Safari Suggestions is enabled in Safari Settings > Search, inputs into the search field are still sent to Apple for providing suggestions. To prevent this, Include Safari Suggestions must also be disabled.
As with Siri Suggestions, the UI is not exactly clear, and though both System Settings and Safari’s settings window have Privacy tabs, that’s not where these options appear.
As Fazal Majid reminds me, another recent example is that Firefox was criticized for opting users into Private Click Measurement, which Apple had also done with Safari.
I find that I’m often accidentally typing or pasting into the new Type to Siri window because I’ve accidentally triggered it by double-tapping the Command key.
Previously:
- Apple Settles Siri Spying Lawsuit
- Privacy of Photos.app’s Enhanced Visual Search
- App Store Search Queries Appear to Violate Data Minimization Practices
- Type to Siri
- Safari Private Click Measurement and Firefox Privacy-Preserving Attribution
- Keeping Your Data From Apple Is Harder Than Expected
- Apple Memory Holes OCSP Preference
- Lawsuits Over Apple Analytics Switch
- Siri Suggestions and Privacy
- Does Apple News Track You?
- Apple Apps Exempt From Network Filters and VPNs
- Opting Out of Sharing Siri Audio Recordings
- How to Crash Safari by Typing Simple Words
- Spotlight Suggestions and Privacy
5 Comments RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
I find that I’m often accidentally typing or pasting into the new Type to Siri window because I’ve accidentally triggered it by double-tapping the Command key.
…do you use Type to Siri enough to keep it bound to something you accidentally trigger that often?
If I didn’t have a key on my keyboard for Siri I’d just leave it in the menu bar, buried under a layer of ice.
On my Mac the keybinding for Type-to-Siri is Globe + S. I assumed this was the default, but maybe I changed it at some point.
@Nathan I turns out that I never use Type to Siri, but I had it enabled to give it a try. My full-sized Apple keyboard has the fn key in a bad place so it’s hard to type Globe-S.
I disabled Siri altogether on my Mac, it's mostly useless, and I really should disable it on my phone.
I had to disable Type to Siri on the iPad because if I missed pressing the spacebar by a quarter centimeter and accidentally tapped the bottom bar that’s a split hair underneath the keyboard, I’d accidentally trigger it.
