Apple wants its devices to know everything about you. But more than ever, it wants you to know that Apple doesn't know what those devices know.
In its Worldwide Developers Conference Monday, Apple execs seemed to emphasize---perhaps more clearly than in any previous keynote---that the company wants to store the personal data its devices silently gather locally, rather than upload it to the cloud. And that privacy-focused marketing continues a push from Cupertino to differentiate itself from Google, Microsoft, and other competitors whose ad-based business models require broader data collection.
In the iOS-focused segment of the event, Apple software engineering VP Craig Federighi detailed how Apple's mobile operating system now collects myriad data about a user's activity to make Siri into a more "proactive" assistant and add "context" to your commands. Plug your headphones in to begin your morning at the gym, and iOS will remember your exercise schedule to offer up workout music; receive a call from an unknown number, and it will mine your communications to offer a guess at who's calling.
But Federighi took special pains to emphasize that almost all that personal information is kept on the iPhone or iPad, not sent to Apple's servers. And when it does upload user data---Federighi gave the example of traffic data in Apple Maps collected from users' phones---it's "anonymous" and not tied to the user's Apple ID. "We don't want to know," Federighi said, to some of the loudest applause of his speech. "All of this is on device, and it stays on device under your control.”
"Thank you!" shouted one developer in the audience.
In another segment of the event on Apple's new "News" service, Federighi returned to that privacy point, emphasizing that "unlike any other news aggregation," News in iOS doesn't upload your reading habits, and is "designed from the ground up with your privacy in mind."