“Siri’s upgrade (revealed at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday) emphasizes proactivity and has achieved parity with the primary features of Google Now and Microsoft’s Cortana: time- and location-based reminders, hunting down videos that can be played within an app, identifying contacts via their phone number, or launching particular songs,” Mark Hachman writes for PCWorld. “But several of Siri’s promised features actually push the platform ahead of the competition: pulling useful data from your apps, controlling your smart home, and kicking off specialized tasks based on your habits or current needs.”

“Google’s grubby paws grab as much of your data as it can get, and makes no bones about it. Cortana also digs through your personal info,” Hachman writes. “Apple says it won’t tie any queries it makes on your behalf to your Apple ID, and any email mining will take place on your machine, not the cloud. That may be a convenient way to avoid stressing Apple’s cloud further, but it’s also going to appeal to average consumers and techies alike who worry about how much of their life is being compiled into a digital dossier. ”

Much more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: For smart users, privacy is paramount.

I’m speaking to you from Silicon Valley, where some of the most prominent and successful companies have built their businesses by lulling their customers into complacency about their personal information. They’re gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetise it. We think that’s wrong. And it’s not the kind of company that Apple wants to be… We believe the customer should be in control of their own information. You might like these so-called free services, but we don’t think they’re worth having your email, your search history and now even your family photos data mined and sold off for god knows what advertising purpose. And we think some day, customers will see this for what it is. — Apple CEO Tim Cook, June 2, 2015

SEE ALSO:

Tim Cook gets privacy and encryption: We shouldn’t surrender them to Google – June 4, 2015
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Edward Snowden: Apple is a privacy pioneer – June 5, 2015
U.S. Senate blocks measures to extend so-called Patriot Act; NSA’s bulk collection of phone records in jeopardy – May 23, 2015
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Apple, others urge Obama to reject any proposal for smartphone backdoors – May 19, 2015
U.S. appeals court rules NSA bulk collection of phone data illegal – May 7, 2015
In open letter to Obama, Apple, Google, others urge Patriot Act not be renewed – March 26, 2015
Apple’s iOS encryption has ‘petrified’ the U.S. administration, governments around the world – March 19, 2015
Obama criticizes China’s demands for U.S. tech firms to hand over encryption keys, install backdoors – March 3, 2015
Apple CEO Tim Cook advocates privacy, says terrorists should be ‘eliminated’ – February 27, 2015
Apple’s Tim Cook warns of ‘dire consequences’ of sacrificing privacy for security – February 13, 2015
DOJ warns Apple: iPhone encryption will lead to a child dying – November 19, 2014
Apple CEO Tim Cook ups privacy to new level, takes direct swipe at Google – September 18, 2014
A message from Tim Cook about Apple’s commitment to your privacy – September 18, 2014
Apple will no longer unlock most iPhones, iPads for police, even with search warrants – September 18, 2014