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Jakewilk

macrumors 6502
Jul 21, 2014
391
885
Ain't gonna cut it. Tim Cook's resignation or free Apple Watch Series 4 for everyone affected.

Why? No one’s data was used or collected injuriously. The personal identification data collected was already randomized on arrival. Unless you started every siri interaction with, “hey siri my name is __ and my social security number is ___” there is no way they could even begin to misuse your data
 

JonnyBlaze

macrumors 6502
May 5, 2008
283
274
UK
I'd really like an option to send a specific query for auditing.

My most recent frustration is (I'm on the iOS 13 Public Beta) I say "Hey Siri play the soundtrack to Monsters Inc." and the onscreen text transcribes it correctly.

Siri replies: "Okay, here is the podcast Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me..."

As opposed to when I say "Hey Siri play the soundtrack to Wall-e" which is transcribed as Wally. So I don't necessarily it gets it right... but it played a random song called Wally or by someone called Wally. *shrug* that one I can kind of explain.

What can I say, my kid is on a Pixar kick.

This so much. I’d love to be able to submit specific Siri mistakes, kind of like you can report errors in Apple maps. This would be a good option! Then you know exactly what you are sharing.
 

Defthand

macrumors 65816
Sep 1, 2010
1,351
1,712
It occurred to me that prior to the iPhone, Apple never had issues it had to apologise for. Nowadays, Apple has to apologise for missteps routinely.
 

mi7chy

macrumors G4
Oct 24, 2014
10,495
11,155
Siri hasn't improved so what was the snooping really for?

And, next generation of Homepod needs a physical mic mute switch because blind trust is for fools.
 

citysnaps

macrumors G4
Oct 10, 2011
11,878
25,793
So the computer transcripts they do keep are tagged to a random identifier. I think everybody is overreacting to all voice assistants. If you’re really that concerned then disable everything and don’t use them.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210558

But that's typical here. How can one feel good about themselves for the next hour if they can't muster up some aggrandizing faux outrage to start their day?
 

whoknows2597

macrumors regular
Aug 9, 2019
248
491
Freaky Siri.

Im getting more and more reluctant to use Siri boosted products.

A couple of days ago I was watching Netflix. I was alone and quiet. All of a sudden, my HomePod reacts and Siri says. "It sounds like you need to talk to someone, would you like me to call the suicide line"..... WTF. I was quiet and this came from nowhere. The first question is Why? The second question, Who listens to this, Is this saved, reported or sold to someone. That is some very personal and scary information about me that isn't even true.

Explanation please Apple. I don't like this.

That would be considered a false trigger. There’s documentation somewhere regarding in the frequency that Siri uses for the voice command “hey Siri.” If the exact words are triggered, Siri will then lower the frequency or threshold after the trigger word to adequately respond or follow through with the command.

In the case for false triggers, the lower frequency is activated, resulting in Siri activating and saying random things. For myself, I had a false trigger last night when I was watching TV, though it was in Spanish. There was obviously something said on the program that sounded similar to “Hey Siri” that caused it to respond with “I have lowered the volume on your HomePod by 20 percent.”

For false triggers, I would be more than happy for Apple or someone else to grade Siri’s performance so something like that doesn’t occur again. Hope this helps.
 

citysnaps

macrumors G4
Oct 10, 2011
11,878
25,793
I don't care much that apple listened to private conversations. I'm annoyed apple fans continually say iOS is better because of privacy.

The solution is simple. Don't willingly give total strangers that much power over your life.

Easy.
 

WRChris

macrumors 6502a
Aug 17, 2016
680
949
Indiana
Congrats guys your unwarranted freakout made Siri worse for everyone. You only have yourselves to blame the next time you’re cursing at it because it can’t understand you.
Which is exactly what happened WITH the private contractors storing and listening to the requests. If we are going to have a ****** service, it might as well be private.
 
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FightTheFuture

macrumors 68000
Oct 19, 2003
1,877
3,029
that town east of ann arbor
I'd rather they not be hypocrites

They aren't hypocrites:
  • Sign In with Apple
  • Activation Lock
  • No More Tracking Kids
  • HomeKit Secure Video
  • Preventing cross-site trafficking

The Siri grading process is a similar practice across all voice assistants. They should've changed this practice but no-one seemed to care that Amazon and Google were doing it. People kept buying Echo's for every room in their house the seven Prime Day's after the controversy surfaced. You can point at "hypocrisy" all you want but it doesn't mean that Apple isn't trying to fix the privacy issues with tech. It's not always black and white.
 

brinary001

Suspended
Sep 4, 2012
991
1,134
Midwest, USA
Everyone should keep in mind that it was contractors who were violating privacy, not Apple directly (hence why one of their changes is to only use their own people going forward) so I can see how this could've happened without Apple necessarily knowing about it. That doesn't mean they didn't, but given how important privacy and security is to them I have no problem giving them the benefit of the doubt on this one.

With the help of some good old fashioned whistleblowing and investigative journalism, it was brought to their attention, they acted immediately, and have now apologized. Like I don't know what else you people want from them.
 

Nunyabinez

macrumors 68000
Apr 27, 2010
1,758
2,230
Provo, UT
Is that the only alternative?

How about "being upfront about the fact that they have people listening"? Couldn't that have been an option? (or would it conflict with their marketing of the claim that privacy is of the utmost importance?)

I agree that it would have been nice to be transparent, but how else do you grade an AI's performance? With another AI? If another AI is more accurate and can identify errors, then you would be using that instead of Siri.

I find it just weird that people couldn't figure out that if responses were being graded it was going to have to be done by living people who could understand the query perfectly. I guess simple logic isn't so simple.
 

Khedron

Suspended
Sep 27, 2013
2,561
5,755
They aren't hypocrites:
  • Sign In with Apple
  • Activation Lock
  • No More Tracking Kids
  • HomeKit Secure Video
  • Preventing cross-site trafficking

The Siri grading process is a similar practice across all voice assistants. They should've changed this practice but no-one seemed to care that Amazon and Google were doing it. People kept buying Echo's for every room in their house the seven Prime Day's after the controversy surfaced. You can point at "hypocrisy" all you want but it doesn't mean that Apple isn't trying to fix the privacy issues with tech. It's not always black and white.

Amazon allowed opt-out from the start. Apple promises they'll let you do it now they've been caught. BTW they're still tracking kids.
 

Naaaaak

macrumors 6502a
Mar 26, 2010
637
2,068
Apple Legal said:
We will continue to use computer-generated transcripts to help Siri improve.

So they continue to keep a transcript of everything you say. I wasn't aware they were doing this.

Why isn't the transcript-keeping opt-in, as well? How would I opt out?
 

Porco

macrumors 68040
Mar 28, 2005
3,315
6,909
I still think the whole technology is flawed from a privacy and consent point of view. This affects people who have no knowledge or say in the collection of the audio. One family member dictating the policy of a living room. One person in an office deciding if they can be the leak. One person in a relationship deciding if accidental recordings of private time can occur...

It’s not reasonable, IMHO, that one person with concerns has to check if other people are opting-out of audio collections for Siri (or its rivals) just in case they accidentally capture sensitive audio.

I honestly think audio collection of this kind should simply be banned. These companies could employ people with specific jobs in specific locations to improve accuracy, rather than using unpaid consumers with all these problematic privacy and consent issues.
 

techdetention

macrumors newbie
Oct 31, 2018
9
11
So the guy who reported this must feel like an idiot now. He got a whole group of contractors terminated and that contract appears to no longer be available.
 

Rob_2811

Suspended
Mar 18, 2016
2,569
4,253
United Kingdom
So the guy who reported this must feel like an idiot now. He got a whole group of contractors terminated and that contract appears to no longer be available.

Yes nothing to do with Apple employing them to carry out processes that they weren't willing to stand behind when fully disclosed.
 

JGIGS

macrumors 68000
Jan 1, 2008
1,818
2,075
CANADA!
I'd really like to be able to use a 3rd party assistant as the default at this point. I mean if they are both listening and using my data I'd at last like to use the best one.
 
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