Apple Suspends Program That Lets Employees Listen to Siri Recordings for Quality Control, Opt Out Option Coming

[Jsameds]

As others have said, it should be opt-in, not opt-out, if they are going to do it at all.

Just out if curiosity I’d like to know how they can be sure supposedly ‘anonymised’ recordings contain no personally-identifying data before humans hear them?! If that could be so assured, why do humans need to listen at all? It sounds paradoxical to me... like, they listening to improve accuracy, but claiming before the audio gets to those people they do something that would require an excellent level of accuracy... huh?!

It anonymises the recordings so they aren't linked to your iCloud account, but if you literally say "hello I'm John Appleseed from Cupertino" then there's not really much anyone can do to protect your identity.

 

[dev.annulled]

It looks like you can disable this now if your are willing to install a configuration profile.

https://github.com/jankais3r/Siri-NoLoggingPLS

 

[ani4ani]

What happens on your iPhone, goes to our contractors.

What happens on your iPhone only happens when throttling is activated....

 

[maflynn]

So Apple got caught, after poking fun at others about the lack of privacy, and even spending a lot of money on promoting that your data/information stays on your iPhone.

I can't say that i'm surprised, I don't trust any multi-billion dollar corporation, While apple tries to market itself as a the lone voice in protecting consumers privacy they had people listen in on our private conversations - of course that raised some eyebrows. Also not surprising they quickly backpedaled and suspended the program ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[ipponrg]

So Apple got caught, after poking fun at others about the lack of privacy, and even spending a lot of money on promoting that your data/information stays on your iPhone.

I can't say that i'm surprised, I don't trust any multi-billion dollar corporation, While apple tries to market itself as a the lone voice in protecting consumers privacy they had people listen in on our private conversations - of course that raised some eyebrows. Also not surprising they quickly backpedaled and suspended the program ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

View attachment 851162

No worries, all of this will get shoved under the rug in the next Macrumors story talking about how great Apple’s marketing of privacy is

 

[TonyC28]

Might help accidental Siri activations if they let us create our own “hey Siri”.

 

[KGBguy]

Throwing out the baby with the bath water.

Do you know the origination of this saying? Good point!

PS That was a balanced look on life. Today we worship the brats we birth....... (well I'm glad mine turned out OK, but I didn't spare the discipline they needed when they needed it)

 

[jonnyb098]

Apple says the data is anonymous first off. Second, Homepod triggers a lot in our home due to the TV/ conversations. When we hear it we are like huh? So if Apple can improve that by knowing we had zero desire to invoke Siri at that moment Im fine with that.

I love how everyone is acting like they are being creeped on when Google and your ISP know WAY more about you than Apple. If you really want to be private, stay off the web and/or social media.

 

[Ortiz83]

I’d let them put an employee in my house if it helped make Siri any smarter.

That’s just too funny yet I’d let them too.

 

[PastaPrimav]

Can people please stop ruining software development with their fake outrage? You've already ruined everything else.

Thanks.

 

[jona2125]

You might say something that identifies you. I don't know how they can anonymize this.

It's not really anonymous regardless. All the "random" links are still traceable back to the device, including the user who was using the device. It's actually fragmented really well, but it only defends identification from an outside standpoint. Internally to Apple, they have and know everything done with their devices.

What they do is fantastic for consumer privacy, so long as you don't mind Apple having everything you ever do 100% linked to you forever. Even when you request your data back, they spend the time to scrub out personal info quite a bit.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Not really related but ... I must be the only person who turns off Siri.

Whenever I'm using my iPhone, I'm almost always in public. At home, I'm on my laptop or I have my iPad right in front of me.

I did ask around my family - I am the only one who turns this off.

The idea of something always listening to what I'm saying or doing is a huge no no in my book. I would rather press a button to active Siri.

Could never do one of those home speakers.

Like others have said, Siri has a long ways to go and one reason is because it doesn't do more things like this program does.

 

[LizKat]

Might help accidental Siri activations if they let us create our own “hey Siri”.

I've sometimes thought that too, having accidentally drawn her attention by mumbling to myself in the kitchen along lines of "ai seriously you klutz" when dropping something or putting in too much pepper... fortunately whatever I say in such situations confuses Siri enough that she says "I didn't get that" or similar.

But my own startled response then is more or less "geez, who asked you!?"...

On the other hand if we could personalize how we activate Siri verbally then that in itself becomes another piece of data that may help uniquely identify us.

 

[Gasu E.]

Well, when it comes to the couples having sex part....maybe there is just a surge in the popularity of the name Siri, and it gets yelled out loud alot....

It's possible! When I yell "Hey", followed by my wife's name, Siri answers. And my wife isn't named "Siri".

 

[nwcs]

I never would have imagined that MR would be populated with so many conspiracy theorists... And it’s funny how many people bag on Apple on this and want all these protections but don’t seem to want it with Google et al.

 

[TonyC28]

I've sometimes thought that too, having accidentally drawn her attention by mumbling to myself in the kitchen along lines of "ai seriously you klutz" when dropping something or putting in too much pepper... fortunately whatever I say in such situations confuses Siri enough that she says "I didn't get that" or similar.

But my own startled response then is more or less "geez, who asked you!?"...

On the other hand if we could personalize how we activate Siri verbally then that in itself becomes another piece of data that may help uniquely identify us.

I have to little to absolutely zero idea how it would actually work in a technical way, but I imagine it being handled by the secure chip on the device. I just want to be able to give my iPhone a different name than Siri. Nice to talk to you again.

 

[kis]

This is ridiculous. Siri is already by far the worst assistant out there, without grading it will never improve and be competitive. They should have just put an opt out (and give to people to opt out the current Siri, keeping the one improved by grading to those who opt in).

It's not the voice recognition that's inferior, though. The problem lies within the completely incapable AI, and that one doesn't need voice training.

 

[jakebrosy]

I barely use Siri anyway: mostly for 'Call THIS-PERSON' since pretty much everything else I ask results in some silly response. (And don't get me started on Alexa's "Hmmmm...I don't know that one.")

But I turned Siri off across the board when I learned folks were listening. When I can opt out of having my requests recorded I might turn her back on. But, then again, I don't really miss it.

Perhaps Siri was a feature in search of a need?

 

[Porco]

It anonymises the recordings so they aren't linked to your iCloud account, but if you literally say "hello I'm John Appleseed from Cupertino" then there's not really much anyone can do to protect your identity.

So it’s ‘anonymised’ like data is ‘ unlimited’... !

I think there is a long list of things they could do to protect people’s identities more effectively.

First of all they could not collect recordings at all, ever. That’s a lot, right there!
They could develop and only use better AI that is heavily encrypted end-to-end.
They could not have any humans, let alone ‘contractors’ listening to recordings.
They could do more analysis on the device so less data ever has to even be sent anywhere.
They could do much more research involving consensual voice samples (perhaps with dummy data) from people opting in so no-one’s privacy is infringed.

Unless you’re saying that’s not really “much” I guess. But then if it isn’t much, why not do it?

I don’t even use Siri or any other voice assistants, but this does affect everyone in range of these devices, and I actually think it’s ridiculous there isn’t more oversight over what they are allowed to do...

 

[alexhardaker]

Hahahahahahaha oh dear.... so that newspaper report was true then, and yet again Apple has been caught with its trousers down...

The company is becoming more and more devious by the day, oh but remember what’s on your iPhone stays on your iPhone... yeah right!

I’ll stick to my Alexa as Amazon tell me what they do with it from day one and allow me to opt out!

Go read their policies on Siri. It’s all there.

 

[spinedoc77]

Very nice, reaffirms my satisfaction with buying Apple. I don't care that they do it, just that they provide the opt out.

 

[Defthand]

That great “AI” everyone is afraid of. Everything has to be reviewed and corrected by humans. Lol. It’s one of the biggest hoaxes of the past 50 years.

Amen. Aside from image recognition, AI in consumer products is truly artificial.

 

[LizKat]

I barely use Siri anyway: mostly for 'Call THIS-PERSON' since pretty much everything else I ask results in some silly response. (And don't get me started on Alexa's "Hmmmm...I don't know that one.")

But I turned Siri off across the board when I learned folks were listening. When I can opt out of having my requests recorded I might turn her back on. But, then again, I don't really miss it.

Perhaps Siri was a feature in search of a need?

I do make use of Siri as a third hand in the kitchen when I'm sick of some playlist and want to hear something else but am up to my elbows in batter for fried zucchini or something. Most of the time she gets actual requests right.

But as noted previously, sometimes I activate Siri accidentally by saying something that only sounds to her like "Hey Siri, something-or-other..." Once in awhile what she says back then is almost as good standup comedy, so it's more or less worth that experience.

Honestly I didn't care if Apple wanted to practice on what I was mumbling when Siri ended up saying stuff like "I can't find that album". Maybe I'd have been embarrassed if she had managed to repeat what I actually said after I had accidentally activated her, for example if what followed what she heard as an activation had been my pretty inventive cursing over having dropped a spoon into the pasta sauce... but I can understand how people want to be assured of not having a domestic quarrel (or the make-up session later) recorded for all posterity.

I still figure Apple's more trustworthy than my own ISP, Google or Walmart / Amazon etc. or any of those in combination... I mean I was happiest transacting commerce online when my email subject lines were pretty generic and said stuff like "Your invoice is ready" or "Your order has shipped" instead of "Your order of SomeBeachRead has been received..." Now our whole lives in household commerce are detailed for hackers of the planet to peruse and sell on if they feel like it (and, they do because that's what they do for a living and everybody has bills to pay). Worse for us, the outfits we transact with also sell our data and they don't call it hacking they just call it monetization...

Do I really care if my commands to Siri are floating around the net? On principle, and so "generically," yes I do care, but in my case maybe not quite the same way as I care if some hacker is inside my utility company's servers fishing out my checking account number, or some behemoth corporation is selling my grocery list to people who'd like their brand to become what I buy. Maybe that's because I take Cook's word for Apple not meaning to compromise our privacy. I like that they are adjusting how they collect data for Siri going forward.

 

[jscooper22]

I don't know who thought sending voice commands to "the cloud" was private. If I need to find out something I want to keep secret, I'll connect to VPN/Tor and type; I think I still know how .. or maybe go to the library (I think they still exist). I really don't care who knows I'll be late for dinner, and I'm really ok with some quality control so I don't have to try to get the text to go through, like, 12 times before Siri understands what the hell I'm saying.

 

[DoctorTech]

Siri still has a way to go but I have to admit "she" is growing on me. I've replaced all but one of my Amazon Echos (the one in the garage) with HomePods for home automation. Siri does a very good job of recognizing my voice commands even from across the room and she responds much faster in controlling lights than Alexa ever did. Siri is not as useful for asking trivia type question such as, "Alexa, who starred in Logan's Run?" but for home automation I actually think Siri is better. The only down sides are 1) HomePod is more expensive (but sounds better) and 2) there is a limited but growing selection of Homekit enabled devices.