Apple Contractors Listened to 1,000+ Siri Recordings Per Shift

[Rob_2811]

You seem easily butthurt. Do you find this works well for you in life?

It is simply not believable that anyone smarter than a clam could think that any party could develop a dictation-based AI without using humans to train the system. Sorry, but that degree of disingenuousness is in no way admirable.

Do you think that the average iPhone user has got any idea how natural language processing is developed? They have absolutely no idea whatsoever.

So your argument is ridiculous.

 

[JosephAW]

Why not have Siri change color or show a icon when it's being sampled and you can opt out or when you're trying to use Siri and it's working incorrectly the user has an option to submit a failure request to the contractors to study and fix?

 

[bkaus]

Now is the time people realize that “Siri” isn’t a good code name for a drug dealer.

 

[adrianlondon]

Why not have Siri change color or show a icon when it's being sampled and you can opt out or when you're trying to use Siri and it's working incorrectly the user has an option to submit a failure request to the contractors to study and fix?

Blue = totally private and won't understand a word you say
Red = being sent to some bored contractor who will try and sort out what you mean

 

[Mescagnus]

What's disappointing is Apple, Google, and Amazon have people listening to recordings.

Yet Google and Amazon are so far ahead in terms of the voice assistant game. What is Apple doing?

Apple was listening to less recordings, in their effort to uphold user privacy

 

[skinned66]

Personally I don’t care about the issue. But as a company which prides itself on privacy, you’d think they would both notify users and let them opt out of it. It makes it harder for them to sell the fact that Apple is different to Google etc when it comes to privacy.

Me neither...at least until I need to which thankfully I don't anticipate. I agree too. Not so saintly now are they?

 

[I7guy]

Me neither...at least until I need to which thankfully I don't anticipate. I agree too. Not so saintly now are they?

Apple wasn’t saintly before (as no company is “saintly”)but that didn’t mean they didn’t care about user privacy. (Even with missteps) being made.

 

[jayducharme]

So your okay with strangers listening to you having sex our private conversations with out you ever knowing about it?

If I'm asking questions of Siri while I'm having sex, I have more problems than eavesdropping.

 

[JosephAW]

I'm just waiting for photogate where random photos you take are sent to contractors to determine if the camera software is working and how to improve them.

 

[citysnaps]

I personally don't see this as a big deal. But it's funny to see the huge contrast of concern when Apple is outed vs other companies like Amazon or Google.

I don't see it as a big deal either.

The aggrandizing faux outrage I see here is always a treat, though.

 

[SomeSoftwareGuy]

Yeah “so what” when its Apple. When Google or Microsoft do it, all hell breaks loose. Fanboy...

exactly, it's all "Read the TOS" when apple does it...

 

[Kabeyun]

Personally I don’t care about the issue. But as a company which prides itself on privacy, you’d think they would both notify users and let them opt out of it. It makes it harder for them to sell the fact that Apple is different to Google etc when it comes to privacy.

Not really. Apple’s product is gadgets and supporting services. That’s how they earn money. Google’s product is advertising. That’s how they earn money.

 

[Jsameds]

I'm upset people still say apple cares about privacy. Fake news.

Well they do. Real news.

 

[Winni]

So what.

Yeah. It's only a problem when Amazon, Google and Microsoft do the very same thing. Right?

 

[aka777]

same ole story- Apple gets caught red handed doing something sneaky then once they're caught they back track and say it's all a misunderstanding (while stopping what they were doing).

I have a novel idea! Why not not do stuff that'll get you into hot water in the first place instead of doing it and waiting to get caught?

Isn't that the core core creed of ShitiCon Valley. They're really diehard Libertarians when you think about. Oh hail the corporations.

Too bad that there are so many idiots who don't seem to grasp what cheap labor does to wages.

 

[oldwatery]

Siri is JUNK and I am amused that just maybe one of these people listen to me telling it so...using very floral language
Oh... and Apple are as bad as any other company out there when it comes down to protecting ones personal info....and lying about it!

 

[I7guy]

I do find it odd that Apple promotes privacy and yet does stuff like this. It kind of disappoints me because I sincerely hope they are not like the others but when stuff like this surfaces, it makes me lack confidence.

And before anyone says it's in the small print somewhere, it's the principle that matters. If you are going to brag about it, make damn sure that you follow it up.

Privacy is not related to product improvement and it was not a surprise that Apple is reviewing Siri as it says so if one clicks on the TOS. What did surprise me is this was outsourced.
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I'm upset people still say apple cares about privacy. Fake news.

This has nothing to do with privacy and everything to do with product improvement. But I guess there always needs to be some fake outrage about something.

 

[s15119]

I guess you’re not concerned about false advertisement, from Apple’s what happens in your phone stays in your phone.

I pay attention, I know people listened to Siri. It's how they improve it. I'm sorry you didn't know. If it concerns you, you can turn off Siri. It's so easy. Good luck.

 

[macfacts]

This has nothing to do with privacy and everything to do with product improvement.

So apple shutdown this scheme because it was improving too much, too fast?

 

[boswald]

Class Action? Enjoy your $.50 check!

 

[I7guy]

So apple shutdown this scheme because it was improving too much, too fast?

No Apple shut it down for reasons of their own probably having to do with that person violating their NDA.

The program will come back because human intervention is necessity for product improvement,

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

I turned ‘hey Siri’ off, every time someone on television used any form of the word ‘serious’ Siri would pop up and ask me what I waned.

Okay, that’s even creepier. Wow!

 

[xalea]

And yet all that effort didn't actually improve Siri, at all. Isn't that the real story?

 

[kwikdeth]

now i feel kinda bad for cursing at Siri so much

 

[gnasher729]

Man, I might need to move to the wilderness and living entirely off the grid to avoid any privacy issue.
Not giving a pass to Apple or any other company, but how can we altogether avoid this issue in a modern society?

This particular problem you could solve by not saying "Hey Siri". Or by saying "Hey Siri" but not following with anything that you don't want anyone to know about.
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Why can’t these companies just use any speech audio to improve speech recognition? That’s what I don’t understand. Not sure why they have to invade privacy of users to improve speech AI.

The problem is not recognising the words. The problem is _understanding_ what the person is saying. For example: I say "What is the weather tomorrow in Oxford", and Siri understands it. Someone else says "What is the weather tomorrow in Oxford, please" and a third person says "What is the weather tomorrow in Oxford please, all-knowing Siri". Someone had to teach Siri that in this situation the "please" is mostly meaningless, and "all-knowing Siri" could be the trigger to add a little joke in the response, or could be ignored. Someone has to listen to this and teach Siri.

But do you think listening to any of these sentences is invading your privacy?
[doublepost=1566680266][/doublepost]

If Siri recording samples are (supposedly) end-to-end encrypted, how did Apple & Globetech gather them?

One of the ends is Apple.