Caution Advised Around New Apple Watch Users Due to New Technology

During an event last Thursday, Apple released its latest smartwatch, featuring a capability that has become a major point of discussion.

The Watch Series 12 is powered by Apple’s S11 chip, which supports Audio Intelligence. This provides impressive AI-based audio processing capabilities, ranging from voice recognition and music identification via Shazam to Live Rewind and Siri Recap.

Specifically regarding Live Rewind, this feature displays text from the last 15 seconds of a conversation instantly. By pressing a button on the device, audio is captured via the microphone and processed through the Secure Exclave on the S11 chip, before sending the data to the user’s iPhone.

However, this implies that the watch could potentially record the voices of people surrounding the user without their permission. Notably, The Register has noted that recording consent is a legal requirement in 11 US states.

Apple describes the feature as a way to respect the privacy of those around the user, specifically relating to sounds like bells or animal noises appearing on the screen.

Furthermore, Siri Recap can summarise conversations held throughout the day. Using Apple Intelligence, the feature can generate notes from these discussions. Apple maintains that Siri Recap does not create verbatim recordings or transcripts, and does not identify specific speakers.

“The result is a brief, high-level summary, similar to notes someone might write after a conversation,” Apple stated, as quoted by The Register on Friday (11/09/2026).

“There is no audio signal because no raw audio is stored, and there is no way to reconstruct the original audio or share it with anyone,” the company added.

The launch of these audio features has also drawn criticism from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Privacy litigation director Adam Schwartz stated that individuals have no way to either consent to or reject such recordings.

“You want people to think twice before using technology, in order to respect the privacy of others’ conversations,” said Schwartz.