Why do Siri and HomePod need Internet access?

Voice-recognition technology is seriously complicated, and requires more processing power than the HomePod, Amazon Echo, or Google Home currently possess. So these devices really just act as microphones that send your voice commands across the internet to powerful servers that run voicerecognition software and then respond to your commands.

Is It Safe?

Sending your voice commands to servers run by Apple, Google, or Amazon obviously poses a threat to your personal privacy. Google and Amazon both make money by collecting as much data about their users as possible, but Apple has a much stricter privacy policy. It does collect data from your devices, but says that it doesn’t use that data to identify you personally – so it can’t be used for advertising, or to monitor your online behavior.