Apple Will Continue to Review Computer-Generated Siri Transcripts Regardless of Opt-In Status

[Swift]

That would be an option if you didn't have to turn on Siri for CarPlay. This is really the only reason why I turned it on.

To be correct though, I "use" Siri more often: it is repeatedly triggered when I am on the phone speaking English, even though I have trained it in German and I never use the activation phrase. This unintended activation is really the most annoying part of the whole thing.

I think I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I’ve triggered Siri. Dozens of times with Alexa and Google. Goggle’s recognition is better. Know how they got it that way? Guess. Amazon is always lighting up and asking me what I said. I have zero problems if Apple is looking for problems with different pronunciations and/or of the key phrase or how it understands in different acoustics, as long as it is anonymized. How about if you share the problematic stuff, and Apple can figure out what the failure is? No one will know it’s you... Google does.

 

[Shirasaki]

But Apple Maps is way superior to google now.

It highly depends on region and available map data.

 

[ackmondual]

Agree. Apple Maps is still very precarious, just yesterday I tried to use it at 1:00 p.m. and the recommended route estimated I would arrive at 10:30 p.m to my destination... Of course that was wrong, Google Maps had it right and I got there in 50 minutes.

Why could Google Maps do it and not Apple Maps? And this was in Austin, one of the cities where the new Maps rolled out recently and it is supposed to be surveyed by Apple's own team.

This trips me up in Google Maps, and TBF, any chance that the mode of transportation was still set to something else? (e.g. walking, or biking)?

 

[pdaholic]

But Apple Maps is way superior to google now.

Not where I live (which happens to be a few blocks away from Apple). But I appreciate your opinion.

 

[Lalatoon]

So from my understanding, the meaning for opt-in is allowing contractor to listen to your recording. Now, opt-out means contractor could no longer listen to your recording but they can still read the transcript of your recording. So when it comes to Siri, the phrase "what happens on your phone stays on your phone" is no longer a fact.

So I guess in this context Amazon and Google is much better because its a black or white opt-out and with Apple there is a grey area.

 

[apolloa]

So from my understanding, the meaning for opt-in is allowing contractor to listen to your recording. Now, opt-out means contractor could no longer listen to your recording but they can still read the transcript of your recording. So when it comes to Siri, the phrase "what happens on your phone stays on your phone" is no longer a fact.

So I guess in this context Amazon and Google is much better because its a black or white opt-out and with Apple there is a grey area.

Yeap basically Apple is performing false advertising, it’s competitors could raise official complaints to the advertising standards if they wanted and probably get Apples privacy campaign banned.
Although I think they are more then happy to let Apples hypocrisy and self indulgence destroy them instead.. which it's doing a fine job off.
Here in the UK broadband providers constantly get their competitors TV ads banned due to false claims about being the fastest or how far their WiFi can go.

I’m not sure if this an EU thing though but it was reported here Apple was about to launch its privacy ad campaign in Germany, just before it blew up in their face with the story of the contractors listening.

 

[rafark]

Why could Google Maps do it and not Apple Maps? And this was in Austin, one of the cities where the new Maps rolled out recently and it is supposed to be surveyed by Apple's own team.

One reason: age. Google has been developing Google maps for the past, what, 16 years? Apple just got into the "maps" business recently (relatively). It's sort of the same way the other way around with mobile OSs. Apple has been developing its own operative systems for decades, while google has just been devolving android for a little over a decade. And it shows.

 

[TheSkywalker77]

I use her when I want to request my bedroom lights to come on but have my garage door open instead.

That sums up Siri pretty well.

 

[mi7chy]

But Apple Maps is way superior to google now.

Only when I have time to kill to drive out of state as Siri suggests for a local destination.

 

[Tech198]

"The only way to avoid this will be to disable Siri entirely"

As i do.. If you use something, you should understand the alleged consequence of using it.\weather their publicly stated or not. Mainly for this exact reason..

When we trust only the public side, and later issue arise from Apple. there is this big stampede from users. If instead, we went in we "Well. this could in theory track me, or listen to my Siri recordings". then if that ever does happen, if won't feel so bad

I do that with everything.

 

[apolloa]

One reason: age. Google has been developing Google maps for the past, what, 16 years? Apple just got into the "maps" business recently (relatively). It's sort of the same way the other way around with mobile OSs. Apple has been developing its own operative systems for decades, while google has just been devolving android for a little over a decade. And it shows.

Apple Maps was launched 7 years ago in 2012!! It’s hardly a new thing to Apple and they’ve had MORE then enough time to make work it properly, and seven years later it still doesn’t..

http://9to5mac.com/guides/apple-maps/

Apple has far more resources and especially money then google or even Waze, yet they are capable of directing you properly.

 

[rafark]

Apple Maps was launched 7 years ago in 2012!! It’s hardly a new thing to Apple and they’ve had MORE then enough time to make work it properly, and seven years later it still doesn’t..

http://9to5mac.com/guides/apple-maps/

Apple has far more resources and especially money then google or even Waze, yet they are capable of directing you properly.

Google has been working on maps with google earth since at least 2001! By 2012 (when apple maps was launched) google already had 7k people working on (a proftable) Google maps. No money in the world can buy you the experience you get by working in something for almost two decades. You can't buy time. That was my point.

 

[bobob]

I "use" Siri more often: it is repeatedly triggered when I am on the phone speaking English, even though I have trained it in German and I never use the activation phrase. This unintended activation is really the most annoying part of the whole thing.

It sounds like someone is repeatedly triggered.

 

[duervo]

Siri is especially broken for me right now on 2 iPhones and 2 iPads ...

“Hey Siri, shuffle” and the Siri screen appears and then disappears before the next word is spoken.

I’d be annoyed if this was the beginning of my Siri adventures, but now it just gets a head-shake from me. So sad.

 

[Kabeyun]

What you do on your iPhone stays on your iPhone... unless you use Siri in which case though! Apple will listen to what you say..

Oh how the tables turn, I’m pretty sure Google and Amazon do NOT do this if you opt out! Apple is the worst spying on you out of the lost!

And thanks Mac Rumors for highlighting how this listening to Siri recordings was NOT in the T’s & C’s as people in here were attempting to claim otherwise to defend Apple.

Their really is no defence against this, Apple WILL spy on you and Siri will still be useless and no where near as advanced as the competitors.

This is the main issue, Apple has obviously been listening to recordings for quite sometime, the whole idea behind that is to improve the AI, yet Siri is, well, useless. They hark on about all this apparent privacy, whilst listening to your recordings. And apparently the reason Siri is so poor is because it won’t off load commands to the cloud or something like true others do.

Yet they will listen or read what you say to it’s AI regardless? Isn’t it about time Apple just did what all the others do, so Siri actually works? I mean it’s been listening to you the same as the others do..

Apple’s heavily publicised privacy stance really is nothing more then a giant slap of hypocrisy to its customers IMO.

Either you didn’t read or don’t care about this article. Apple won’t spy on you and any retained recordings will be in the form of anonymized text once the Siri-improvement program resumes (and yes, that’s what this is all for).

As to Siri being useless and far worse than the competitors, it depends. If you want a pretty thorough comparison you can easily find some online. If you want an opinionated smear, feel free to read through MR comments.

 

[laptech]

People have miss-understood what is happening. The article explains that Apple will continue to review Siri interactions regardless if you've opt'd in or opt'd out:

In its FAQ, however, Apple says it will continue to review anonymized computer-generated transcripts of Siri interactions, even from users who do not opt in. The only way to avoid this will be to disable Siri entirely:
Quote
Is the only way for Siri not to retain my audio recordings and transcripts to disable Siri?

By default, Apple will no longer retain audio of your Siri requests, starting with a future software release in fall 2019. Computer-generated transcriptions of your audio requests may be used to improve Siri. These transcriptions are associated with a random identifier, not your Apple ID, for up to six months. If you do not want transcriptions of your Siri audio recordings to be retained, you can disable Siri and Dictation in Settings.

So, for those that opt'd out, the audio records will no longer be kept BUT text based transcriptions of the audio recordings will be kept for a period of 6 months. This is a despicable and deceptive practice by Apple to change tactic in that those who opt'd out of having their audio interactions with Siri used by Apple will have a text based transcription of their interactions with Siri instead and the only way to stop that from happening is to disable Siri altogether.

When customers opt out, that should mean opt out of everything but oh no, Apple moved the goal posts and said 'ok, so you wont lets us have your audio interactions so will make a text transcript of those audio interactions instead and if you want us to stop doing that you will have to disable Siri'.

 

[Kabeyun]

Apple Maps was launched 7 years ago in 2012!! It’s hardly a new thing to Apple and they’ve had MORE then enough time to make work it properly, and seven years later it still doesn’t..

http://9to5mac.com/guides/apple-maps/

Apple has far more resources and especially money then google or even Waze, yet they are capable of directing you properly.

1. Waze is Google.

2. You didn’t even read your own link. Not having read beyond the first sentence or two, you couldn’t have done a better job disproving your own point. Beautiful! Here’s the summary paragraph, which says the opposite of what you said:

When Apple launched Maps, it was a failure. Rather than admit defeat and move on to other projects, they admitted fault and went back to work trying to make it the best mapping app available. As we start to see the fruit of their persistence, Apple Maps is providing a great experience. Outside of the ability to download maps offline (which may soon be possible using Apple’s own data), I see no reason why you’d want to use Google Maps. Even data corrections have faster turnaround with the new Maps experience. Apple’s persistence has paid off.​

As I suspected above, you didn’t read the topic article either. Ignore enabled.

 

[FamVR]

This is a nice improvement, but I would love to have the option to wade through my Siri interactions and wipe them when I want. That way I also know when Siri was triggered when it shouldn’t.

OT: I love Apple Maps and especially the new Look Around feature. Which to me is a fantastic improvement over 2D mapping. I used it recently for San Fransisco (and nearby) and I was surprised to see the high resolution pictures being morphed into one long streak of road fun.
[doublepost=1567077772][/doublepost]

People have miss-understood what is happening. The article explains that Apple will continue to review Siri interactions regardless if you've opt'd in or opt'd out:

So, for those that opt'd out, the audio records will no longer be kept BUT text based transcriptions of the audio recordings will be kept for a period of 6 months. This is a despicable and deceptive practice by Apple to change tactic in that those who opt'd out of having their audio interactions with Siri used by Apple will have a text based transcription of their interactions with Siri instead and the only way to stop that from happening is to disable Siri altogether.

When customers opt out, that should mean opt out of everything but oh no, Apple moved the goal posts and said 'ok, so you wont lets us have your audio interactions so will make a text transcript of those audio interactions instead and if you want us to stop doing that you will have to disable Siri'.

You missed the point that Apple’s opt-out is specifically targeted at human grading. Not machine grading.

You don’t want Siri to be improved? I most certainly want that, and so do many others.

 

[cfurlin]

Typical MacRumors poster:

“I have serious privacy concerns...<outrage...outrage...outrage>”
***jumps on Facebook to complain to their 6K “friends” about it***

 

[dantroline]

I don't recall the last time I used Siri for anything

But Siri remembers.

 

[I7guy]

But Siri remembers.

Only for 6 months and then amnesia.

 

[GeoStructural]

This trips me up in Google Maps, and TBF, any chance that the mode of transportation was still set to something else? (e.g. walking, or biking)?

No incorrect settings, just dumb Apple Maps.
I even wanted to record the issue but I was in such a rush.

 

[dewski]

I’m sure you will get criticism on this site for your comment, but I totally agree with you. Like Apple Maps, I repeatedly tried using Siri early in its lifespan, and both were inferior to other options. I just don’t use either anymore. Every now and then I try to make a reminder using Siri on my Apple Watch, half the time waiting for it to “tap me when it’s ready.” Swing and a miss.

The only useful thing siri does is set reminders and alarms. Even then it cant be relied upon. Most of my reminders are a jumbled mess resembling what I said. I can usually decipher the message, though.

 

[dewski]

How do you own an Apple Watch and not use Siri? It would have about half the capability without it.

Nearly every time I engage Siri from the watch it tells me it will tap me when ready. After about 10 seconds, I give up and do it manually.

 

[apolloa]

Either you didn’t read or don’t care about this article. Apple won’t spy on you and any retained recordings will be in the form of anonymized text once the Siri-improvement program resumes (and yes, that’s what this is all for).

As to Siri being useless and far worse than the competitors, it depends. If you want a pretty thorough comparison you can easily find some online. If you want an opinionated smear, feel free to read through MR comments.

Siri is useless, I don’t need to compare it to anything, I’ve had access to it for several years now, and I choose Alexa every single time as it’s far far far superior.

It also appears you’ve not been paying attention, no where does it state this text that you CANNOT opt out of will be anonymised, if you mention names while still its listening it’ll record them.
[doublepost=1567083079][/doublepost]

1. Waze is Google.

2. You didn’t even read your own link. Not having read beyond the first sentence or two, you couldn’t have done a better job disproving your own point. Beautiful! Here’s the summary paragraph, which says the opposite of what you said:

When Apple launched Maps, it was a failure. Rather than admit defeat and move on to other projects, they admitted fault and went back to work trying to make it the best mapping app available. As we start to see the fruit of their persistence, Apple Maps is providing a great experience. Outside of the ability to download maps offline (which may soon be possible using Apple’s own data), I see no reason why you’d want to use Google Maps. Even data corrections have faster turnaround with the new Maps experience. Apple’s persistence has paid off.​

As I suspected above, you didn’t read the topic article either. Ignore enabled.

Ignore enabled haha.. you didn’t get the point of my post, it was to back up my claim Apple maps existing since 2012.
That’s the only purpose it was meant to serve, this has fine right over your head it seems, ignore returned sit if your that petty.
And once again, you haven’t read this story one bit and gone on the defence of Apple instead attempting to defend their decision to not let you opt if of recordings being listened to.