In September 2016, Apple began testing a new technology for collecting user data, and now is introducing it in its new products. This was reported by analysts LeapYear Technologies. Technology solves the pressing problem: to obtain data about users without spying on them. To blur personal data, technology adds statistical noise to the information under analysis.

Modern analysis tools are able to find links in large databases. Therefore, they are able to identify a person where anonymity is needed. This worries experts. For example, two years ago, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that it is possible to identify shoppers by associating social network accounts with credit card data or time of purchase.

"People do not even imagine how easily their data can cease to be anonymous," said LeapYear Technologies founder Ishan Nerurcar.

Apple is often criticized for lagging behind competitors - for example, from Google, which made a big step forward in the recognition of images and languages ??for virtual assistants and unmanned vehicles. While access to data helped companies such as Google develop artificial intelligence, Apple was hampered by its own privacy policy. Until now, the corporation has not collected user data, but to succeed in the era of artificial intelligence, Apple has to do it, states associate professor of the University of California Ehbhradip Guha Thakurta. Until January 2017. He participated in the development of Apple's privacy systems. One of the main advantages of artificial intelligence, he calls differential privacy.

A year ago this term was known only to scientists, and today it is used by Microsoft and Uber. So companies can create their products and analyze data, but not tying them to specific people.

Previously, Apple analyzed how people use emoji and slang on the iPhone. Now the corporation is trying to get more data about the health of the user and the web pages they visited, said the software engineer at Apple Kate Skinner. With the help of differential privacy, Apple already protects millions of records that it receives from Apple, iPhone and iPad computers.