IBM Doesn't Let Employees Use Apple's Siri At Work

IBM CIO says the company switches off Siri on employees' iPhones for security reasons.

When Apple announced the iPhone 4S in the fall of 2011, the biggest addition was Siri, the personal assistant ready to organize your day, find the closest Thai restaurant to your house and answer all kinds of questions you might have about life, the world and everything.

However, if you're working at IBM, your new assistant isn't welcome at the office. Why? She might be storing sensitive information.

Speaking to MIT's Technology Review, IBM CIO Jeanette Horan revealed that the company switches off Siri on employees' iPhones for fear their spoken queries will be stored. Horan revealed the ban on Siri while discussing the struggles associated with implementing a "bring your own device" policy. Horan said there's a lack of understanding when it comes to potentially leaky applications.

According to the CIO, a staff survey of several hunderd IBMers showed people were "blissfully unaware" of what apps could pose as a potential security risk. Before an employee can connect to the IBM networks with their own device, the IT department configures it for remote wipe and disables things like iCloud and Dropbox.

Wired points out that Horan's concerns about Siri aren't unwarranted. This March 12 article on the The American Civil Liberties Union's website is enjoying rather timely placement on the front page of Reddit today and highlights just how much data Apple collects via Siri. The voice activated personal assistant sends your queries to Apple in order to process your request and provide you with an answer--that much is obvious. However, you might not know just how much data Siri collects and sends to Apple.

Nicole Ozer of ACLU Northern California writes that aside from audio recordings, transcripts of what you said, and related diagnostic data, Siri is also providing Apple with names of your contacts, as well as their nicknames and relationship to you, labels you assign to email accounts, names of songs and playlists you have on your phone, and your first name and nickname.

"Voice Input Data is al

l the types of data associated with your verbal commands and may also include audio recordings, transcripts of what you said, and related diagnostic data," writes Ozer. "Apple says this Voice Input Data is being used to process your request and to help Siri better recognize your commands, but it's additionally being used 'generally to improve the overall accuracy and performance of Siri and other Apple products and services.'"

ACLU notes that switching off Siri will result in the deletion of User Data and any recent Voice Input Data, but older information that has since been disassociated from you may remain with Apple.

Jane McEntegart is the senior news editor for Tom's Hardware and Tom's Guide and also takes care of Tom's Hardware UK. She has been writing for Tom's since July of 2007 and covers a range of topics including software, computer hardware, consumer electronics, video games and mobile applications. Other interests include StarCraft and baking.