If you have a new, shiny iPhone 4S this is something you might want to pay attention to. While Siri is a super useful piece of voice recognition software it also leaves your phone somewhat exposed in its default settings. If you have your phone password locked but haven't changed Siri's settings, the digital assistant can be accessed without inputting the phone password.
What this means is just about anyone could pick up your phone and have access to your entire calendar. In addition the software will allow emails and text messages to be sent, and the phone numbers and addresses of people in your contacts list to be accessed without inputting the phone password. There are some limitations to using Siri while the phone is still locked. First, apps can't be launched. Second, text messages and emails can only be sent to people in your contacts list.
Even with these restrictions a surprising amount of personal information could be accessed without ever knowing your password. People would be able to find out exactly where you were going to be and when from your calendar as well as grab just about anyone's address and phone number. The most sinister case would be using the calendar to discover when you would be on vacation and looking up the contact for your spouse could reveal your home address. A very clever thief would know exactly what to do with that information.
It's surprising that Apple chose to have Siri in this mode by default. One would think the more reasonable setting would be to turn Siri off when the phone is passcode locked. So how exactly do you go about fixing this? The solution is actually very simple. In the Passcode lock settings there is an option to switch Siri to "off." Doing this will allow Siri to be used as long as the phone is unlocked but disables the voice assistant as soon as the phone is locked down.
Do you have an iPhone 4S? Did you realize Siri was in this mode by default? Would you even bother to change this setting or is it more convenient for you to leave Siri enabled even when the phone is passcode locked? Let us know what you think in the comments.
