Apple decided not to roll out Siri in EU after denied request for exemption

afavour

Apple said "hey, can we not comply with the law", the EU said no, so it didn't launch. Seems pretty straightforward to me. I can see why Apple might want to request an 18 month exemption, there's clearly extra work required to comply with EU regulations. But on the other hand it also feels like a straightforward play for consumer sympathy: let them get used to using it every day for 18 months, then pressure the EU to let it continue or you rip the feature away and anger users (who you then point to the EU as the problem) It's not as if Apple doesn't have the money to dedicate a team to matching the EU's requirements on a deadline. They just choose not to.

graphime

Good. EU has the right to privacy. Apple also has the right to not conduct business in EU. If EU doesn’t like it, they can build their own sovereign software.

cced

Does this affect users that have a primary address in the EU or anyone with a phone that is _in_ the EU?

macintux

Of all the crimes Big Tech is committing against humanity, Apple's attempt to safeguard user privacy is the one the EU cannot abide?

microtonal

So, first they have to be regulated because Apple and Android form a duopoly. Then they want to get an exception that the other duopoly player does not get. Of course, as usual they use their PR machine to blame the EU, whereas they really just want to abuse their platform's position to shut out competitors. I have been a decades long Apple user, but their anti-competitive behavior, pushing ads into the OS and apps, and their treatment of developers (who made the iPhone big) is just gross.

a2128

In a circle of irony, reuters.com is denying my request to read the article about Apple deciding to deny rolling out Siri in EU due to being denied their request for an exemption to law Access Denied Our apologies, the content you requested cannot be accessed.

mrcwinn

The EU is only interested in interoperability and centralization of data so they can put their citizens under surveillance. I hope Apple continues to exit this market on the edges.

throwaway27448

Seems like a win for everyone.

nicce

I wonder how ChatGPT or Claude are actually GDPR compliant, but Apple has problems with Siri.

jplrssn

> EU regulators on Tuesday slammed Apple This reads more like a tabloid headline than the first sentence of a Reuters article.

a_paddy

What could Apple/Siri be asking for an exemption from that Google/Gemini has already complied with? Accessing iCloud photos to edit them? Parsing email etc?

grim_io

I'd rather have my iPhone turn into a dumbphone than EU bow to the Megacorps.

perlgeek

Apple tries to market its product as privacy-focused, yet the privacy of their new AI features is so bad they don't meet EU standards? Is that the message here?

nsikorr

Good for the total of eight users that will then use an alternative agent once it landed. Similar to the twelve people that use alternative app stores.

rvz

Even when Siri AI is using a locally installed LLM (with optional cloud models with E2EE), the EU still decides that it is not even enough. This is why the EU is destined to lose and run itself to zero.

nromiun

Apple stock is down more than 4% right now. That is a big dump for such a blue chip stock. IDK if it is due to this EU ban or Apple choice of going with Gemini (instead of making their own models).

Jgoauh

Interesting how the "groundbreaking Private Cloud Compute" cannot rollout due to privacy laws

slopinthebag

That's fine, good actually. I wish these companies would go further tbh. Like when the UK banned encryption I wish Apple would have just disabled iMessage entirely there. Show a message saying that due to UK law, they cannot operate an encrypted messaging service there any longer. The backlash would get that law changed pretty quick. Instead they disabled encryption for the UK, making all of us less secure.

jandrewrogers

I understand Apple's position on this one. This is essentially a backdoor into all of your data. It is also a very useful feature. The EU regulators are disallowing guardrails without which this backdoor will be used to strip-mine people's personal data. The privacy implications are not legible to most people. If I was more cynical I would suggest that this is being used as an end-run around encryption, since the encryption doesn't have backdoors for the government but this gives you access to all the same data. When this backdoor is inevitably exploited in some very public fashion, it won't be the EU regulators that required the backdoor to exist who will be blamed.

m3kw9

Apple is right, EU wants to live in the stone age because of these laws, let them.