Victory! You Can Now Exclude Apps from Siri AI

Apple's iOS 27.2 update adds an "Exclude Apps" setting that lets users block Siri AI from accessing the contents of individual apps, the Electronic Frontier Foundation reported, fulfilling one of the asks from its Encrypt It Already campaign earlier this year. The EFF said the new control is clearer than the launch settings, which required toggling several options to block Siri AI from an app, and that excluding an app also disables features such as Siri AI reading or responding to messages and onscreen awareness. The EFF added that Android's Gemini controls have improved but remain less straightforward than Apple's new settings and lack per-app screen context control.

In the most recent update to Apple’s devices, iOS 27.2, the company has introduced a new setting to “Exclude Apps” from Siri AI, fulfilling one of our asks from our Encrypt It Already campaign earlier this year https://encryptitalready.org/ . One of our main concerns with new AI features on devices is how those features interact with end-to-end encrypted content, particularly with secure messaging apps. Many AI features require cloud processing, and despite privacy protections engineered into these systems https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/09/secure-messaging-and-ai-remain-conflict-despite-promise-tees , the content of secure messaging apps may leave a user’s device without their knowledge. That changes the privacy concerns around using those tools. In a perfect world, users would be able to put a barrier up to ensure data from certain apps doesn’t leave the device. Here was our initial ask: You should be able to tell the operating system’s AI to not access an app, even if that comes at the “cost” of missing out on some features. The setting should be straightforward and easy to understand in ways the Gemini and Apple Intelligence controls currently are not. At launch, we found the settings to control Siri AI’s app access behavior pretty confusing https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/09/how-limit-what-apples-new-siri-ai-can-access-ios-27 . You had to toggle several options to block Siri AI off from accessing an app, or disable Siri AI entirely. Turning off Siri AI and reverting to Siri Classic https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/09/how-limit-what-apples-new-siri-ai-can-access-ios-27 classicsiri is, for now, still a good option if you’d prefer to use the older version. The most recent update is far more clear and does more to protect your data. And, just as expected, it comes at the cost of some features. That’s a good thing, actually. The features not working shows that the new setting is effective. Here’s how to add apps to the exclusion list, once you’ve updated to 27.2: Now Siri AI cannot access the contents of the app. Excluding an app also means you may lose some features. For example, if you exclude the Apple Messages app, you will no longer be able to have Siri AI read or respond to messages for you. Even the “onscreen awareness” feature, where you invoke Siri and ask it for information about what you’re currently looking at, will not work anymore. For example, if you exclude Signal, you cannot invoke Siri and ask it to discern any information in the Signal app. You’ll just get these messages: This update from Apple is also a good excuse to check in on the process on Android. It has improved a little, but is not as straightforward https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/13594961?hl=en screen automation&zippy=%2Cwhat-happens-with-my-data-when-gemini-uses-screen-automation-to-help-me-get-tasks-done-in-android-apps%2Cwhat-happens-to-my-data-when-i-use-geminis-agentic-calling-capability as Apple’s new settings, and lacks the ability to set the screen context feature per-app. But you do have some control over what Gemini can access: This process seems to work well enough for some data and we like that it’s opt in, but it’s not exactly intuitive. For example, Signal doesn’t appear there because Signal doesn’t support Gemini’s app access feature at all. That means Gemini can’t access the content of Signal directly, which is good. But Gemini can read notifications if you’ve enabled the “ Device Assistance https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/15235441 ” Connected App which you likely have, since that also enables basic features, like setting a timer—check under Settings Personal Intelligence Connected Apps , and it can use screen context unless you’ve disabled the Device controls Screen context “Use screen and app data” option in the Gemini Settings. These two features may access the contents of the Signal app or notifications, if you choose to use them. We’d prefer a more hard-lined approach that reduces the chances of user error here: Google should give users the ability to turn these features off per app. Apple clearly understands that some users want stronger controls over what Siri AI can and cannot access. But we think they should go further and offer the option to only use “on device” AI features, similar to what Samsung offered with its Galaxy AI https://www.wired.com/story/limit-galaxy-ai-to-on-device-processing-or-turn-it-off/ . We’re happy to see this change and think all operating systems need to consider similar controls moving forward.