In a rare move for the brand, Apple has apologised over the processes it uses to evaluate Siri’s performance.

A recent report from The Guardian revealed Apple’s contractors regularly hear Siri’s recordings of private conversations, with the phone giant saying it will be making changes to the way it grades Siri interaction.

In the report, a former Apple contractor revealed staff regularly hear confidential medical information, drug deals, and recordings of couples having sex from Apple’s virtual assistant Siri as part of ‘quality control’.

In a statement, the company said: “As a result of our review, we realise we haven’t been fully living up to our high ideals, and for that we apologise.”

Following the report, Apple said it would be stopping its Siri grading program, with “grading” being the term the company uses to describe its process for evaluating Siri’s performance, which included having contractors listen to recordings of Siri interactions.

Apple said it won’t be recording Siri conversations by default but will not be using a computer-generated transcript to monitor the voice-assistant’s accuracy.

“We hope that many people will choose to help Siri get better, knowing that Apple respects their data and has strong privacy controls in place,” the company said.

Apple users can opt in if they wish to help improve Siri’s performance. And if they do opt in, recordings will only be shared with Apple employees and not contractors.