Apple Watch Series 12's Siri Recap feature listens to the environment and summarizes conversations throughout the day. So how does it work, what is the privacy risk?
Siri Recap, which comes with Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, listens to the environment and summarizes your conversations during the day. Apple says the audio is never recorded. So what does this feature do in practice and where is it controversial in terms of privacy?
The most talked about innovation of the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4, introduced at Apple's September 9 event, is not the new health sensors or two-day battery life: Siri Recap. The watch listens to surrounding conversations with its microphone and extracts headlines, summaries and highlights via Apple Intelligence. The user can then read these summaries from the new Siri application.
In Apple's words, the aim is to "make it easier to remember": an appointment, a name or a to-do list discussed during the day appears before you as a text later. The company also introduced a second feature called Live Rewind; When you press the Digital Crown twice, the last 15 seconds of conversation appear on the screen as text, and these summaries are encrypted end-to-end.
Is sound recorded?
Apple's answer to this question is clear: no. According to the company, the audio is never recorded or stored, and the raw audio data is not accessible.
On the technical side, the new S11 chip is at the heart of the matter. Apple states that the chip has a special compartment called Secure Exclave, isolated from the rest of the system at the hardware level; It states that the audio is processed in this pane and deleted as soon as the process is finished. Additionally, the feature does not identify speakers and does not attribute conversations to individuals — Apple explains this as a design decision for the privacy of both the user and those around them.
On the control side, the user is offered three options: to leave the feature on all the time, to connect it to a specific time schedule, or to turn it off completely.
So what's controversial?
Even if the sound is not stored, there is a fact: the device listens and produces text from what it listens to. This is exactly the center of the privacy debate.
First, the generated digest itself may carry sensitive information. Whether it's a health conversation, a salary negotiation, or a private family matter, the text may remain on the device as a summary even if the raw audio is deleted.
Second, and more critical, is the issue of consent. The person wearing the watch turns on this feature on purpose; However, other people in the same environment do not have such knowledge or approval. This is the audio equivalent of the debate over Meta's camera-equipped smart glasses and will probably bring similar reactions.
For Türkiye, the question mark centers on KVKK. Voice is considered within the scope of personal data and its processing, as a rule, requires the explicit consent of the relevant person. The difference between processing and deleting the data on the device and sending it to a server will be decisive here; It seems that how the use will be interpreted, especially in environments such as workplaces, hospitals and schools, will be on the agenda of lawyers. While Apple's technical measures are strong, what regulators will often look at is not the technology itself but the quality of the resulting data.
Price and release date
The US price of Apple Watch Series 12 starts at $399, and the price of Apple Watch Ultra 4 starts at $799. Türkiye prices are 27.999 TL and 75.999 TL respectively. Both models are available for pre-order on September 12 and go on sale on September 18.
For comparison: Apple Watch Series 11 was sold for 23,999 TL in Turkey, and Ultra 3 was sold for 65,999 TL. In other words, although dollar prices remain constant, the new generation in Turkey is approximately 16% more expensive than the previous one.
