Maintaining privacy of personal information

#The present disclosure relates generally to intelligent automated assistants and, more specifically, to privacy-preserving intelligent automated assistants.

#Intelligent automated assistants (or digital assistants) can provide a beneficial interface between human users and electronic devices. Such assistants can allow users to interact with devices or systems using natural language in spoken and/or text forms. For example, a user can provide a speech input containing a user request to a digital assistant operating on an electronic device. The digital assistant can interpret the user's intent from the speech input and operationalize the user's intent into tasks. The tasks can then be performed by executing one or more services of the electronic device, and a relevant output responsive to the user request can be returned to the user. In some instances, however, automated digital assistants are not natively configured to provide interactions related to particular domains, such as those corresponding to private data (e.g., sensitive user-specific data, health data, financial data).

#Example methods are disclosed herein. An example method includes, at an electronic device having one or more processors, receiving a natural-language input corresponding to a domain; providing the natural-language input to an external device; receiving, from the external device, a process flow corresponding to the domain; determining, with the process flow corresponding to the domain, a task associated with the natural-language input; performing the task; and providing an output indicating whether the task has been performed.

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system and environment for implementing a digital assistant, according to various examples.

#FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating a portable multifunction device implementing the client-side portion of a digital assistant, according to various examples.

#FIG. 2B is a block diagram illustrating exemplary components for event handling, according to various examples.

#In the following description of examples, reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which are shown by way of illustration specific examples that can be practiced. It is to be understood that other examples can be used and structural changes can be made without departing from the scope of the various examples.

#Although the following description uses terms “first,” “second,” etc. to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by the terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first input could be termed a second input, and, similarly, a second input could be termed a first input, without departing from the scope of the various described examples. The first input and the second input are both inputs and, in some cases, are separate and different inputs.

#The terminology used in the description of the various described examples herein is for the purpose of describing particular examples only and is not intended to be limiting. As used in the description of the various described examples and the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will also be understood that the term “and/or” as used herein refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. It will be further understood that the terms “includes,” “including,” “comprises,” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.