Personal Information Protection Commission "Investigating Apple Siri Eavesdropping Allegations... Considering Official Investigation"

The Personal Information Protection Commission announced on the 16th that it is currently investigating the facts regarding allegations that Apple's voice assistant 'Siri' recorded private conversations.

On the same day, Ko Hak-soo, Chairman of the Personal Information Protection Commission, held a regular briefing with the press corps at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, stating, "The Apple Siri case is at the stage where the Commission is assessing what role it can play and what actually happened, prompted by related reports from the United States."

Ko Hak-su, Chairman of the Personal Information Protection Commission, is delivering a greeting at the regular briefing for the press corps held on the afternoon of the 16th at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Provided by the Personal Information Protection Commission

Apple has previously agreed to pay a total of $95 million (approximately 140 billion KRW) to consumers in a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. concerning illegal collection of personal information. Consumers claimed that Siri recorded private conversations and provided this data to third parties, including advertisers.

Chairman Ko said, "We are keeping open the possibility of whether to convert this into an official investigation case, conduct a preliminary fact-finding inspection, or pursue a third course." A preliminary fact-finding inspection is a procedure where the Commission checks for vulnerabilities in advance when no violation of the Personal Information Protection Act is found but there is a high risk of personal information infringement incidents.

Regarding the administrative lawsuit to cancel fines worth around 100 billion KRW imposed on Google and Meta, he said, "A court ruling is scheduled for the 23rd, and we are optimistically expecting the outcome."

This year, the Personal Information Protection Commission plans to focus on industrial development and personal information protection with artificial intelligence (AI) as a key topic. Chairman Ko emphasized, "This year marks the period when AI will enter everyday life. The Commission’s AI guidelines will take root even in small-scale companies and individual sectors, enabling them to leap forward based on these foundations."

He continued, "Problems such as deepfakes, fake news, and hallucinations caused by the misuse of AI technology continue to emerge. We will resolve as many issues as possible under existing laws and make efforts to amend laws in the first half of the year to address unresolved problems."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.