Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Contractors Listened to 1,000+ Siri Recordings Per Shift
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Apple claims publicly that your data stays on your phone, when in fact they’re sending it to third-party people who were having a listen. This is ******** and someone probably should’ve gotten fired.
It does make you wonder how you view what's said on stage to the general public.
We have Tim Cook speaking again and again on the total privacy topic. Whilst at the very same time he's saying these words to the public, he knows full well, this stuff is going on, and keeping quiet about it.
Knowing this, you can't help but wonder about other things being done, which we may never know about, whilst being told something else.
I don't care, just be open and honest about it Apple.
We have Tim Cook speaking again and again on the total privacy topic. Whilst at the very same time he's saying these words to the public, he knows full well, this stuff is going on, and keeping quiet about it.
Knowing this, you can't help but wonder about other things being done, which we may never know about, whilst being told something else.
I don't care, just be open and honest about it Apple.
You know what. Everyone I know, knows that Google is making money with advertising. There’s no secret to it. But Apple also makes money with advertising, be it somewhat indirectly. And then this. If listening to Siri wasn’t such a big deal, then why was the project canceled by Apple?
And when Apple really cared about our privacy, then we would have an opt-in checkbox, but since that’s not the case...people are upset about it.
Another thing. Using a TOS as fine print for users is not a great thing. It’s used as a legal defense, but it could have been so much better. I mean. Let’s take car mirrors, as example, and what I read it them, is the missing fine print from Apple. That is the issue people are having with this. The missing reminder...with the option to opt-in or opt-out.
Lastly. That big advertisement about what happens on your iPhone, is a lie. That is another thing that people are upset about.
And in five years from now, who knows what may happen. Perhaps more sh*t may hit the fan, and that’s when a lot of people will say; oh, just like that Siri thing.
I personally do not care about it, but other people seem to have real issues with it.
Last edited:
It's not secret, that Siri and other clicks are used in the App store and I believe you can opt-out of them. But that's entirely different from googles' model of targeted advertisements.
IMO, this isn't going away. Apple is going to do this in a different way. The contractor blew the NDA and probably was responsible for the firing of the entire department. It's a tell that the AI can't get better for all concerned without some human intervention.
Yes and no. Baby steps. Security and privacy is a process not an end goal.
It could have been clearer, but that's where Apple put it. I was never worried about my conversations leaking to the dark web. Some people care, some people don't. With 1 billion customers, there are many opinions.
It depends if one took it as a statement of fact or a slogan. As a statement of fact, it's flat out false and one would have to be pedantic to view it as such. It's a slogan. And obviously there is communication between the iphone and apples infrastructure and the outside world.
Agreed, who knows what will happen in five years. Apple has clearly made some mis-steps, but a mis-step does not mean they aren't working to ensure their customers data is safe.
Not the point. Follow the trail of Apple money and it leads to gadgets and services. Follow the trail of Google money and it leads to you.
Just because there’s uproar doesn’t mean people are right. It’s easier for Apple to do damage control by stopping the process than it is to try to teach the outraged that you can’t do QI on a voice recognition system without humans listening. (I also wouldn’t want anyone developing an automated driving system without a human assessing it from behind the wheel.) You can’t reason with the mob, so just put out the fire.
Seems google did this exact same thing as well and it was pretty quiet about that.
If you've worked at a company and had any sort of cynicism, you'd know to not view what's said on stage as complete truth. Companies go to lengths to present politically correct views.
Apple got caught with their pants down and should never have contracted out something so sensitive. Apple is 100% to blame and should have been upfront.
See how this all works.. Apple could have done this without public knowing, and no one would know.. Only when something comes out, it's too late..
Which is why that system always works, even if it is a privacy violation 'per say.'
We're just moving the posts to someone else to trust. But convenience always takes control. Using the "We need to do this to improve service" can be said for just about anything regardless..
If people are that worried, why use it?
Seriously, i dont how one would expect this to improve without human intervention. They will have to listen.
On a side note: There have been many instances, many, where i have spoken something and Siri (the machine) interpreted it perfectly word-to-word, then all of a sudden, she wipes everything, re-writes something that is not remotely correct to what i spoke! Somehow.
Contractors are the same as employees, except there is no process to fire a contractor.
Last edited:
This is a terrible argument. The issue here is accidental triggers which result in contractors listening to private conversations/interactions that are happening in peoples homes.
It happens with the Echo, Google Home and the HomePod.
Again there is no way the average iPhone user understands this and they shouldn't have to.
The answer is that Apple should be absolutely clear about what happens with voice recordings, its very easy to do put a message in plain language in the software, in the Siri settings page and on set up of a new device, advising the end user that Apple and its contractors may listen to some of their recording to improve the software and have a simple opt out toggle. Problem solved.
Vague language buried in some licence agreement somewhere isn't enough if you are going to preach to the world about how much you care about your customers privacy.
All my Apple gadgets and services ultimately leads to me and my family. It’s even easier for Apple. They know who we are. Everything is linked to our iCloud id’s.
The fact that Google makes money with advertisements is their way of paying the bills. I don’t have a problem with that, or I should stop using Google. As a matter of fact, the money paid out by Google, helped developers a decade ago, who now work for Apple, to work on things like Safari. And I know, because I was one of them.
This is the worst excuse. Blame Apple for the ignorance of the average consumer.
Contractors also don’t get paid benefits and have limited access to company resources.
So no, they aren’t the same as staff employees. They are literally a hired gun for a single job.
[doublepost=1566821894][/doublepost]
Apple prides themselves on consumer friendliness. What you’re saying here is the opposite of their mantra.
They do the same job as employees, background checks and ndas. So yeah, they are the same as employees.
And that is why right “under enable” Siri there is a link about privacy. Being consumer friendly and having a comprehensive tos are not mutually exclusive. And ones definition of “consumer friendly” is a sliding scale.
This situation is not defensible. Apple must issue and apology and fix this immediately. Nothing should be blamed on the consumer here.
The fact that they even have Recordings of people in intimate moments is truly shocking.
How can anyone defend Apple in this situation!? It’s disgusting!
The fact that they even have Recordings of people in intimate moments is truly shocking.
How can anyone defend Apple in this situation!? It’s disgusting!
FFS - I am not going to read every misinformed comment on this thread. Yes, I am on iOS 13 beta, but this has been in Siri settings for as long as I can remember.
Last edited:
Your calling people misinformed but your post doesn't make any sense at all.
Most people would have no idea this was happening so why would they take steps to mitigate something that was happening without their knowledge?
Is there anything you wouldn't defend them on?
I apologize that you lack basic reading comprehension skills. I added another screen shot to clearly show that this is part of the privacy statement for Siri that is readily available for ANY USER to read. That they refuse and/or fail to do so is squarely on them - Apple disclosed their policy fairly clearly.
tl;dr - RTFM!
How do you know “most” people would have no idea this is happening? Isn’t they presumptuous.
Is there anything you wouldn’t criticize them on?Is there anything you wouldn't defend them on?
I don't use machine learning much in my job, but I'm pretty sure to get the model used for speech-to-text better, you need a large set of properly tagged training data which I'm guessing is what these contractors were doing. If you want Siri to work well, you're gonna have to give it real-world recordings.