Apple has updated the Apple Store app’s privacy policy, adding terms regarding a yet-to-be-released virtual shopping assistant. Here are the details.
Apple expands AI use in retail
As spotted by MacRumors, the Apple Store App \& Privacy page now features a segment called Virtual Shopping Assistant, which says:
Where the Apple Store app virtual shopping assistant is available, Apple collects and stores your account information, device identifiers, carrier information, chat information, and where enabled, location data to personalize the chat experience, provide relevant responses, and if you opt in, to improve the virtual shopping assistant. Before sharing the chat with our partners, Apple scrubs personal identifiers from it. These partners will use this information only to help Apple to provide a conversational response. Apple will save these transcripts to make them available when you return to the Apple Store app, for our business analytics, and if you opt in, to improve the virtual shopping assistant. You can control whether your use of the virtual shopping assistant will be used to improve the experience by going to Account > Settings and tapping Chat Improvements within the Apple Store app. If you have questions about how your personal data is used as it relates to the virtual shopping assistant, or you would like to reach our Data Protection Officer, you can contact us at www.apple.com/legal/privacy/contact.
In other words, the Apple Store app may soon get a chatbot that will leverage user data to personalize its responses and help with purchase decisions.
Apple says it will remove personal identifiers before sharing chat content with unnamed partners that provide the assistant’s responses, which likely indicates that a third-party model from an outside company will power at least part of the experience.
Chat transcripts will remain available in the app for users to revisit and will also be retained for Apple’s business analytics. Users can separately opt in to allowing their conversations to be used to improve the virtual shopping assistant through a new Chat Improvements setting.
The wording in Apple’s privacy policy suggests that the virtual assistant will initially be available only in select countries and regions, potentially starting in English-speaking markets, before expanding to additional languages and locations.
Today’s news comes a few months after Apple added an AI-powered chatbot to its Sales Coach app, which provides sales and technical resources to the company’s retail partners. Accessible through an “Ask” tab, the chatbot answers questions using Apple’s official training materials and documentation.
It also comes after Bloomberg reported that Apple is testing a “Live Notes” system at select retail stores, using AI to record, transcribe, and summarize Genius Bar sessions so employees can focus on assisting customers rather than taking notes.
To learn more about the Apple Store App \& Privacy, follow this link.
Do you think a chatbot in the Apple Store app will be useful? Let us know in the comments.
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