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Dictation sends info to Apple servers

D

donnaw

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 19, 2011
1,134
6
Austin TX
I guess its no surprise considering Siri does it too but you might want to be careful with exactly what you dictate. Nothing proprietary that's for sure. It does go a bit further than just some quick questions.

"Chapman cites several examples of information Apple gives the user about Dictation as its settings are being changed or used, including this:*

The things you dictate will be recorded and sent to Apple to convert what you say into text. Your device will also send Apple other information, such as your first name and nickname; the names, nicknames, and relationship with you (e.g., “my dad”) of your address book contacts; and song names in your collection (collectively, your “User Data”). All of this data is used to help the dictation feature understand you better and recognize what you say. It is not linked to other data that Apple may have from your use of other Apple services.

You have to Wi-Fi turned on to use Dictation; you can't use it otherwise, by just dictating to your iPad, Chapman noted. "

http://m.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/te...ads-dictation-sends-info-apple-servers-485609
 
Apple tells you all this when you first setup the iPad during the opt-in process for dictation. I guess you just didn't pay attention.
 
Ricky Smith said:
This has been known about since Sirri was released. It's all in what they do with the info and how it's stored.
Click to expand...

Yes, but with Siri how many people dictate entire emails or even documents? While not surprising it's still a good thing to keep in mind. Especially if using it for anything proprietary.
 
Yet another "clickbait journalist." He makes it sound like Apple went through great lengths to hide this info. I like how this information is 'vague' despite telling you exactly what it collects and does with it in plain english.
 
It seemed very clear to me when I clicked to use it, and I use to worry about it, not so much anymore. In reality things people dictate are not that useful or serve a future purpose outside of helping future dictation be more accurate.

If your dishing out seriously important trade secrets, or something else very private and your name is very well known, then maybe you shouldn't be using it. For the average person or even business person, dictation is nothing to fear.

As far as address book contacts... friends and colleagues have your info on phones and probably use path, Facebook and who knows what else that may upload that data. So even if we didn't want our contact info on these servers, we couldn't stop it from happening on other peoples devices and connecting it to us.

It's something we need to pay attention to, but as of now, not bothered by it collecting what I say.

I love dictation, and maybe I'm the only one, but it's spot on all the time.
 
Tom G. said:
The OP did not read the disclosure when setting up his iPad? It was plain as day to me when I set mine up.

I dictated this post should I worry? I think not. :p
Click to expand...

1). I'm a 'she'
2). I did read it but many do not. Many people now understand that Siri does this but the dictation on the iPad was specifically billed as not being Siri.
3). I'm sure some here may find it hard to believe but there are folks who don't own an iPhone but do own iPads. I simply posted a link so the people who didn't know this can be informed.

If it doesn't apply to you or you already 'knew' it then you can disregard the post. Simple as that.
 
I just dictated, "I prefer Android"

:eek: Whats going to happen to me??

My door just went... maybe its them

...please, somebody tell my mum I love her...
 
Some people like myself are anal about these type of things. I used it to test it, and may use it again for simple things, but thats about it.
 
Good to know if you weren't aware of it. That said, I'm not sure why most people would care unless they are dictating highly confidential information (i.e. SSN's, account #'s, plans to rob the local bank, etc). :)
 
donnaw said:
I guess its no surprise considering Siri does it too but you might want to be careful with exactly what you dictate. Nothing proprietary that's for sure. It does go a bit further than just some quick questions.
Click to expand...

This is pretty common for dictation on mobile devices with limited memory.

For example, Android also sends the user's voice to dedicated servers for decoding.

In both cases, the voice data is immediately discarded... with the exception that if you correct a transcription, sometimes that particular voice snippet is saved to improve later transcriptions.

(You can turn that feature off in your personal Google dashboard, and delete old entries, if you're worried.)
 
If you're looking for an alternative, then use Dragon Dictation. I don't like the fact that Siri based dictation must happen on the server level because compared to Dragon Dictation which was made by the same company, the level of quality is about the same. While it's true that Apple needs to collect more data on voice transcription tech, I support the initiative by speaking into Siri every so often. Hopefully we get better transcription algorithms in the end that can be done on-board.
 
Give the OP a break - how many people blow through all of these legalese and disclaimers when they set up or install something? Yes, it's their own fault, but it sure seems as if a ton of people are surprised by it.
 
Apple is trying to collect as much information about its consumers/users to build profiles to sell more items and "share" them with other subsidiaries (or highest bidder).
Why do you think they want you to use iCloud? Because they want to be generous and provide free storage? :rolleyes:

First they track your movement on your iPhone (sorry :p) and not tell anyone, then apps stealing your personal info and now siri archiving your dictation/thoughts.

It's clear apple is getting in to the business of obtaining as much personal info from their consumers/users to make more money selling them more products or just selling their personal info for profit.

Apple has now become the big cooperate business in which they despised in the past.
 
bawbac said:
Apple is trying to collect as much information about its consumers/users to build profiles to sell more items and "share" them with other subsidiaries (or highest bidder).
Why do you think they want you to use iCloud? Because they want to be generous and provide free storage? :rolleyes:

First they track your movement on your iPhone (sorry :p) and not tell anyone, then apps stealing your personal info and now siri archiving your dictation/thoughts.

It's clear apple is getting in to the business of obtaining as much personal info from their consumers/users to make more money selling them more products or just selling their personal info for profit.

Apple has now become the big cooperate business in which they despised in the past.
Click to expand...

I'll go ahead and assume this is complete sarcasm.
 
This is one of the downsides of using cloud services to process data on outside servers -- rather than processing that data locally on more powerful devices like laptops.

You don't need to be famous or be doing something illegal to be concerned about this. The government could easily subpoena Apple for everything dictated to an iDevice assuming that type of data is stored. The government could even *require* Apple to store that data for a period of time.
 
donnaw said:
I guess its no surprise considering Siri does it too but you might want to be careful with exactly what you dictate. Nothing proprietary that's for sure. It does go a bit further than just some quick questions.

"Chapman cites several examples of information Apple gives the user about Dictation as its settings are being changed or used, including this:*

The things you dictate will be recorded and sent to Apple to convert what you say into text. Your device will also send Apple other information, such as your first name and nickname; the names, nicknames, and relationship with you (e.g., “my dad”) of your address book contacts; and song names in your collection (collectively, your “User Data”). All of this data is used to help the dictation feature understand you better and recognize what you say. It is not linked to other data that Apple may have from your use of other Apple services.

You have to Wi-Fi turned on to use Dictation; you can't use it otherwise, by just dictating to your iPad, Chapman noted. "

http://m.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/te...ads-dictation-sends-info-apple-servers-485609
Click to expand...

If you're this paranoid you should also avoid Google searches and just the Internet in general.
 
I'm pretty worried about this. Everything that I say could help someone take over the world since what I dictate is top secret info.
 
whtrbt7 said:
If you're looking for an alternative, then use Dragon Dictation. I don't like the fact that Siri based dictation must happen on the server level because compared to Dragon Dictation which was made by the same company, the level of quality is about the same. While it's true that Apple needs to collect more data on voice transcription tech, I support the initiative by speaking into Siri every so often. Hopefully we get better transcription algorithms in the end that can be done on-board.
Click to expand...

But Dragon does the exact same thing. Only difference is that there's a checkbox for Dragon not to upload contact names for matching purposes.
 
I'm not too concerned about it, but probably good to point out regardless.

My son has been tinkering with it some. He keeps dictating into using a Cajun accent, and fake German accent as well. It's hilarious to see what it thinks you said. :D
 
everything else

All my emails, are backed up on apple servers, are is a lot of my data, on apple/dropbox/microsoft/google etc.. If you think that the data your transcribing going to a dictation server (most likely at NUANCE actually) is a point of true exposure, what should we do about everything else?
 
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