MARCH 4, 2019

iPhone conspiracies
By: Viviane Graham

A quote by George Banister, a man who served our country in the Air Force as an Airman First Class,
says “The best kept secrets are those in plain sight.” Michael Burken, a political scientist, believes
that nothing happens by accident, nothing is as it seems, and everything is connected. One
conspiracy that research supports is that iPhone conspiracies exist. There are many who believe there
are hidden motives on the part of Apple, which supports the conspiracy theory against Apple. There
is much evidence showing Apple is often recording us, listening to us, and slowing down older
phones to force us to upgrade earlier then necessary to their latest devices.

Apple claims that “iPhones do not secretly record users’ conversations — nor do the smartphones
listen in on their conversations. iPhone doesn’t listen to consumers, except to recognize the clear,
unambiguous audio trigger ‘Hey Siri.” “Siri does more than ever. Even before you ask” (Apple
company) this means that apple is stating Siri does more than she’s ever done, before we ask for her.
“Teach Siri who your family members are” (Apple company). Meaning that Siri can save our personal
information like who our family members are.

In the article by Todd Spangler, the theory that

iPhones are always listening is dispelled.
“iPhones do not secretly record users’
conversations — nor do the smartphones listen
in on their conversations.” (Apple company)
iPhone doesn’t listen to consumers, except to
recognize the clear, unambiguous audio trigger
‘Hey Siri.” (Greg walden) This shows that while
there are many people that believe the
conspiracy is true even though Apple denied If iPhones aren’t always listening to
this, is because the phones have ability to listen. us then why does Apple state that
There is also a new feature on camera that “Siri does more then ever, even
takes “live” photos which takes a burst of before you ask”?
photos into one moving photo, but do we really
know when the photos aren’t being taken
anymore? What if bursts of photos are being
taken often.

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THEORIES MARCH 4, 2019

Another conspiracy is that the company was slowing down their older iPhones to get people to buy new
ones. An example of this is when Apple said it has, “at times, limited processing power on older phones to
prevent them from shutting down unexpectedly,” a practice some consumers suspected was being used to
force them to upgrade their devices. This goes to show that there are people who believe there are hidden
motives on the part of Apple, which supports the argument of iPhone conspiracies. Another example is
apple create better graphics for their newest phones. App and game makers design their software to work
better on newer, faster devices. So if you have an older smartphone and you want a brand-new game with
heavy graphics to work as well as it possibly could, you’ll want a new phone. This also shows that Apple
contributes to making current phones quickly become obsolete. We also know that Apple has got rid of the
old earbud cord and came out with the new Bluetooth earbuds for $169.

Apple has been keeping secrets and we need to know the truth with what they do with our information.
Apple has admitted that Siri is listening before we ask, so what does she do with the things we say? Yes, of
course we can turn the Siri feature off, but how do we know for sure she is not still listening? Since Apple
iPhones have the ability to listen to what we say even before we ask, this leads people to logically believe
she is always listening. Most people would agree, Apple increasingly creates innovative technology. That
said, as that technology is getting better and ‘smarter’ people deserve and need to know what the truth is.