How to Delete Siri & Dictation History on Mac and Opt-Out of Audio Recording Storage
Want to delete and erase all Siri and Dictation history associated with a Mac from Apple servers? Additionally, can opt out of future audio storage and review of Siri recordings from a Mac. You can do both of these with the latest MacOS system software release, and this article will show you how.
As you may know, Siri keeps a recorded history of audio interactions with the virtual assistant that is unique to each computer or device you use it with. For example if you use Hey Siri on a Mac laptop and also on an iMac desktop, the two computers would have different Siri History. If you’d like to clear out and delete that Siri recording history from Apple servers, and then opt-out of future Siri and Dictation recordings being used for analysis to improve the feature, you can do that too.
How to Delete Siri & Dictation History on Mac
Here is how you can delete any Siri & Dictation history associated with the current Mac from any Apple servers:
- Go to Apple menu and choose “System Preferences”
- Select “Siri” preference panel
- Choose “Delete Siri & Dictation History” button alongside Siri History
- Confirm that you want to delete Siri & Dictation history associated with this Mac from Apple servers by clicking on “Delete”
With Siri and Dictation history data being removed from the Mac these steps were followed on, you may want to repeat the same process on other Macs where you use Siri.
Additionally, you may be interested in stopping Siri and Dictation audio recording history from being stored on Apple servers by opting out of that capability, which apparently is aimed at improving Siri.
How to Disable Siri & Dictation History Audio Recordings Being Stored on Apple Servers on Mac
After you’ve deleted the Siri & Dictation history for a particular Mac, you might want to opt-out of future Siri audio recording data storage too. Here’s how to do that:
- Go to Apple menu and choose “System Preferences”
- Select “Security & Privacy”
- Choose the “Privacy” tab
- Choose “Analytics & Improvement” from the sidebar options
- Click the lock icon in the bottom left corner and authenticate with an admin account if necessary
- Uncheck the box for “Improve Siri & Dictation” to opt-out of Siri audio recordings being stored on Apple servers for review and improvement
As mentioned before, this is unique to each device or computer you use Siri with. So if you also use Siri on iOS and ipadOS devices, you might want to delete Siri audio recordings history on iPhone and iPad and disable Siri audio storage on iPhone and iPad too.
These abilities should be welcome changes and abilities for privacy advocates and security minded individuals who like maximum control over their personal data. Just remember that you’ll need a modern version of MacOS to have this capability on Mac, as the setting was introduced in MacOS Catalina 10.15.1 so that release or anything later will have the option available, whereas other system software versions will not. Therefore if you look in Siri preferences and the Privacy section System Prefs and do not find these settings or options, it’s likely because the Mac is not running a system software release with this capability.
Whether or not you use Siri (and if you don’t, you might as well disable it on the Mac) is entirely a matter of personal preference, and some users love and use the feature constantly, while others may not. Me personally, I use it frequently on my iPhone, but I never use it on my Mac so I have it disabled there, but every user has a unique case.
Did you opt-out of Siri and Dictation audio recording storage? Did you delete any Siri audio recording data associated with a Mac? Why or why not? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!
