France launches investigation into Apple over Siri recordings

France has launched an investigation into Apple over the use of voice recordings made using Siri. The Paris prosecutor's office has referred the case to the Cybercrime Office, Bloomberg reports.

The reason is that Siri can record and store users' voice interactions to improve the service. Apple says this feature is voluntary, but some recordings may be kept for up to two years and reviewed by the company's contractors, so-called "graders."

France has long taken a tough stance on big American tech companies, launching antitrust investigations and imposing a digital services tax, moves that have drawn criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has called them discriminatory and threatened retaliatory tariffs.

The investigation into Apple followed a complaint from the human rights group Ligue des droits de l'Homme, which cited testimony from Thomas Le Bonniec, a former Apple contractor in Ireland, who said he had to analyze sensitive user records, including those of cancer patients.

In its blog post in January, Apple emphasized that the company does not store Siri recordings without the user's explicit consent, and even if consent is given, they are used solely to improve the assistant's performance.