You may have seen a copy-and-pasted post floating around social media — I’ve caught it a few times on Facebook — warning about an Apple Intelligence and Siri setting that purportedly allows Apple to read your encrypted texts such as from the secure messaging app Signal or WhatsApp. It reads something like, “Did you know that if you have an iPhone, you may have Apple Intelligence and Siri reading all your apps?”
It’s understandable that this setting is causing confusion — and this type of post stokes worries about hackers getting hold of your sensitive, personal information. People see reports of companies like Facebook building their AI systems on user data and assume that Apple must be using its position as the maker of the device running apps to grab any data it can.
However, that’s not what’s happening here. Apple is not reading your texts.
Here’s what’s really going on with Apple Intelligence and third-party apps
On your iPhone or iPad go to Settings > Apps and tap an app name; I’ll use Signal as the example, but it applies to any app. Then tap Apple Intelligence & Siri if your device supports Apple’s AI technology or Siri if it doesn’t.
These options appear in every app’s settings.
On a Mac running MacOS Sequoia 15.3, go to System Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri (or just Siri) and click the About Siri, Dictation & Privacy button, then select an app from the list at left.
The setting in question is Learn from this App (or on a Mac, Learn from this application), which is admittedly vague wording, especially paired with AI technology — it conjures images of Apple grabbing data from the app and sending it to the cloud for processing, the way most AI systems do.
Instead, Learn from this App allows the system to collect information such as how often the app is opened and when. It’s a setting that collects data about the app, not from within the apps.
Here’s a practical example of how that’s used: On the home screen, when you tap the Search button or pull down from the middle of the screen to bring up the Search bar, a Siri Suggestions bar appears at the top. The apps showing up there tend to be ones you’ve used recently or that you’ve turned to at this time of day.
The “Learn from this App” setting allows apps to show up in the Siri Suggestions bar in context when you perform a search.
For instance, I often use Callsheet, a third-party app of movie and TV information, to look up actors when I’m watching something in the evening. Because iOS has noted this pattern, Callsheet is almost always one of the apps in the Siri Suggestions bar during my typical TV-watching time. The same goes for the app AnyList, where I keep my grocery lists, which show up when I’m at my local supermarket.
Part of the confusion, I believe, is the way the system grafts Apple Intelligence and Siri into the same Settings panel. Learn from this App is a Siri feature, and Siri is enhanced under Apple Intelligence, but right now the distinction between the two is getting lost.
Watch this: See the iPhone 16’s New Visual Intelligence in Action
How Apple Intelligence processes requests
Another reason this interaction is muddy is the way AI systems process data requests. ChatGPT, for example, sends data to a network of servers (mostly Microsoft’s Azure network), figures out the answer and then sends the result back to your device.
Apple Intelligence processing, on the other hand, is mostly done on-device. That requires a lot of processing power, which is why only the latest two generations of iPhones, as well as Macs and iPads running M-series processors, can run Apple Intelligence. If a request requires more processing power, it is sent to cloud servers — but those are in Apple’s Private Cloud Compute infrastructure.
Apple’s Private Cloud Compute works in its own closed system.
Private Cloud Compute is designed so the request and the result are both encrypted and anonymized. Here’s a rough analogy: Imagine you’re at a restaurant and you hand your waiter a sealed envelope containing your dinner order. They take the envelope to the kitchen, where the cooks prepare your meal and a separate server delivers the meal to you on a covered plate. The waiter doesn’t know what you ordered and the chefs don’t know who ordered it, but you still receive the food you requested.
So any Apple Intelligence data is always encrypted, either on-device or in Private Cloud Compute, such that Apple can’t decipher it. Even if Apple Intelligence was somehow gaining access to the Signal messages — which you can assure your Facebook friends isn’t happening — Apple wouldn’t be able to read what you wrote.
This is also why, if you’ve enabled ChatGPT to work with Apple Intelligence, you must approve the query using ChatGPT each time. That data is sent outside of Apple’s on-device and Private Cloud Compute bubble.
You’re doing the right thing by questioning app privacy
Even though the scare-mongering about this Apple Intelligence setting is misdirected, it’s good that people are adopting a privacy-first mindset. I’d much rather explain situations like this than see people lose their personal data because they don’t question apps and settings.
While you’re thinking about it, make sure you know what data your cellular carrier is tracking (and how to turn it off) and learn strategies for stopping scam calls.
