Contractors Working on Siri 'Regularly' Hear Recordings of Drug Deals, Private Medical Info and More Claims Apple Employee

[jpn]

the article describes this latest person to identify this human analysis as a "whistleblower".
LOL.
what is this person actually claiming that has not been acknowledged most publicly by apple in the past?

this so-called "whistleblower" is just a person who is employed as an analyst and s/himself is acting unprofessional
OFCOURSE Siri will hear whatever. this does include WHATEVER people do and talk about.

nothing to see here.

and macrumors actually publishing this is clearly doing it for purient clickbait reasons.
[doublepost=1564181853][/doublepost]

This is why I have Siri disabled.

this.
i don't have it enabled either.
for this very kind of reason.

but i dont object to Siri as tech that people can use.

my criticism of this published "article" by macrumors is that its a non-story.

what is newsworthy about a 24/7 always listening device that you may have in multiple rooms in your house that is constantly monitoring, and, at the same time, the company that provides this service is attempting to perfect the tech.

people: if you object to having people listen to you, dont enable it.

 

[arch1t3cton]

 

[iGeek2019]

It’s there in black and white under the Terms of using dictation in my opinion...

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

Timmy in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... "No! Impossible. Never happened."

*chuckle* he’ll come out with his eyes dilated to 11.

 

[I7guy]

Greedy: "Having or showing an intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth or power. Money-grubbing, money-grabbing; informalgrabby; rarepleonectic, Mammonish, Mammonistic"

Sounds like someone who would lie and deceive to get their stock options to max out. Of course, that's not Tim at all.

Doesn’t sound like anybody deceived. Unless one wants to stretch it and say, Apple lied about making Siri better.

 

[ijameson]

Second paragraph of Guardian article ...

“... They are tasked with grading the responses on a variety of factors, including whether the activation of the voice assistant was deliberate or accidental, ...”

In other words, the contractors are doing what they paid to do, including letting Apple know when this happens.

 

[adrianlondon]

I'm glad this type of data is being sent to contractors to analyse. At the moment, Siri is totally useless in getting me drugs.

 

[femike]

I would like Apple to be open and tell us what how they manage data collected from users instead of Apple being found out through stories like these. But I guess no company wants to reveal how much data collection is going on.

 

[Williesleg]

Of course they do!
Apple didn't build those huge datacenters to help design product.
We are the product.
Good Job Tim Apple.

 

[Lalatoon]

I'm also skeptical of this claim from the contractor. Apple's privacy policy is pretty clear on this point, even if it doesn't mention the human oversight. I believe names and addresses might sometimes be heard if spoken aloud, but not that info is sent with contact information/addresses/location.

Thats a problem with a closed system. Lots of claims on what they are doing but no one really knows how they are doing it. Even if it says they anonymise data but without third party or external auditing of how such system is implemented It still can't be trusted. It will remain a claim but not a fact. Engineers can make mistakes and most of the time they are oblivious to their own mistakes and it needs fresh eyes from a third party to point out their mistakes.

We have very good and dependable encryption algorithm nowadays because of transparency of how this modern encryption algorithm are design and implemented. Imagine Apple creates it's own encryption algorithm and doesn't show us it's designed but still claims it is better compared to AES. Will the world trust it and start using it?

My point is when it comes to digital security and privacy, trust is very important. Trust should come from transparency not from brand. Apple is not a non-profit organisation, Apple may claim a lot about privacy and security but they will always put profit upfront first before anything else and trusting them blindly because of their claims is a very dangerous thing.

 

[Shirasaki]

No matter how much privacy is touted by companies, including Apple, it is difficult to trust any of them. Don't let any company have a spy in your house. Period.

While this is a good initiative, doing so would essentially mean completely disconnecting from Internet and give up all the convenience everybody else Taken for granted. It is still totally doable depending on personal situation though.

People don't understand that any record that exists can be subpoenaed. Apple's anonymization techniques leave many holes, and they can be compelled to undo them by court order. There's nothing stopping a prosecutor from subpoenaing Apple for all audio records from a particular location at a particular time to solve a crime.

We've all traded convenience for real privacy.

Yes. Indeed, and the main reason why I don’t buy this entire “smart blah blah” thing.

Sounds like they just need to improve the vetting of these contractors. Naturally some private information will end up in Siri requests sometimes.

I occasionally have access to sensitive information when I’m debugging using restored client database backups. I take it very seriously, I don’t go poking around, I delete the database when I’m done working on the issue. I treat it with the same respect I would want a fellow professional to treat my data with.

While you show diligence and respect on customer sensitive data, many others show no respect to this or do not realise the importance of not eyeing on personal information. I can only wish more people like you exist.

 

[nvmls]

From the creators of "We wouldn't be in that position" & "What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone".

 

[I7guy]

From the creators of "We wouldn't be in that position" & "What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone".

Don’t think it was ever a secret that Siri commands go up to apple’s servers.

 

[apolloa]

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha breath hahahahahahahahahahahahaha........

Oh the sheer irony hahahahaha...

That’s to Apple and you guys on here that ‘pretend’ to have Apple ‘privacy’ whilst slating Amazon and Google hahahahaha
[doublepost=1564188953][/doublepost]

There will be a Rene Ritchie video defending this soon. If it were Google/Facebook, he'd go *******.

Yeap because he’s a typically hypocritical Apple apologist.
And when you do something like Apple when you are the size of Apple, like heavily advertise apparent privacy, you invite investigative journalism to confirm it’ll its true or not..

 

[I7guy]

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha breath hahahahahahahahahahahahaha........

Oh the sheer irony hahahahaha...

That’s to Apple and you guys on here that ‘pretend’ to have Apple ‘privacy’ whilst slating Amazon and Google hahahahaha
[doublepost=1564188953][/doublepost]

Yeap because he’s a typically hypocritical Apple apologist.
And when you do something like Apple when you are the size of Apple, like heavily advertise apparent privacy, you invite investigative journalism to confirm it’ll its true or not..

I don’t think there is any scale here. If one could step out of hyperbole there must be tens of millions (who really knows but a lot) of requests a day even if there is a room full of people it’s a fraction of the total. You guys act like every Siri request is being leaked to the dark web.

 

[apolloa]

Lol would love to see what users defending Apple here had to say when MacRumors posted about Amazon and Google employees listening in.

So basically Apple does exactly what Amazon and Google does- listen. Whodathunk the only way to improve recognition is to have a human grade it.

Haha oh they instantly go on the defensive because how could the wonderful Apple possibly be THE EXACT same as everyone else.. well actually much much MUCH worst as the others tell you what they do, Apple just lies claiming your data and privacy stays on your iPhone...

 

[iZac]

“Hey Siri, disable Siri”

It’s never worked for me so far. But it’s also the first thing I turn off when I get a new device.

 

[apolloa]

People....calm down. There IS a huge difference between Apple and the rest of these devices. Details and facts matter here.

Google/Amazon devices...ALWAYS RECORDING. Humans listening. Recordings subpoenaed by authorities.
https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/14/amazon-echo-recordings-judge-murder-case/
https://www.cnn.com/2017/03/07/tech/amazon-echo-alexa-bentonville-arkansas-murder-case/index.html

Apple devices...Recording AFTER YOU ACTIVATE SIRI. Humans listening to a small portion to improve recognition. Stripped of personal data.

Now the contractor is stating that they have heard drug deals, doctors convos, sexual activity...yes they have...from people activating Siri inadvertently!!!

The article is sensationalizing this and making it seem like Apple is always listening through Siri. They are not. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Actually your completely wrong here.... A reasonable deflection attempt though.

 

[Rogifan]

For all those saying Apple apologists are silent:

Jason Snell (@jsnell)
7/26/19, 6:58 PM
I don't care why Apple is listening to my audio and I don't care that it's happening in a "secure facility." I do not want my audio recordings to be listened to by human beings or retained for further study. Disclose this better and let me opt out.
https://sixcolors.com/link/2019/07/apple-employees-listen-to-siri-audio-samples/

Paul Haddad (@tapbot_paul)
7/26/19, 5:46 PM
Wait if they are using humans to listen to sampled content (like everyone else) why does Siri still suck so much?

Paul Haddad (@tapbot_paul)
7/26/19, 7:15 PM
Actually given Apple’s privacy stand shouldn’t they be asking permission before uploading voice recordings to a place they could be listened to by humans?

Paul Haddad (@tapbot_paul)
7/26/19, 7:31 PM
I don’t mean a line in the EULA, I mean if the device decides it should send a recording for further analysis, it prompts then and there for that specific recording.

 

[sirozha]

I had a strange experience with Siri 4 years ago. The phone was plugged in the car, and I was discussing forest trails with my son. Suddenly, Siri said “I can’t find any forest trails around here.” That was weird and freaky.

I used to live in the USSR, and once I picked up my home phone and heard someone mentioning my name during a phone conversation with another person. The phone didn’t ring when I picked it up to make a call. At that point, I knew the KGB was tapping my line. I had more proof of that later when they started following me.

So, Siri as well as other digital assistants may very well be a way for law enforcement to wiretap citizens, while the stupid citizens buy the wiretapping devices at their own expense.

 

[fairuz]

This here is the next week of headlines blowing this out of proportion. Brace yourself.

If anything they don't freak out about this enough.

 

[dannyyankou]

This goes against the privacy Apple touts.

 

[I7guy]

Actually your completely wrong here.... A reasonable deflection attempt though.

How is the poster completely wrong? Please explain further.
[doublepost=1564194357][/doublepost]

the article describes this latest person to identify this human analysis as a "whistleblower".
LOL.
what is this person actually claiming that has not been acknowledged most publicly by apple in the past?

this so-called "whistleblower" is just a person who is employed as an analyst and s/himself is acting unprofessional
OFCOURSE Siri will hear whatever. this does include WHATEVER people do and talk about.

nothing to see here.

and macrumors actually publishing this is clearly doing it for purient clickbait reasons.
[doublepost=1564181853][/doublepost]

this.
i don't have it enabled either.
for this very kind of reason.

but i dont object to Siri as tech that people can use.

my criticism of this published "article" by macrumors is that its a non-story.

what is newsworthy about a 24/7 always listening device that you may have in multiple rooms in your house that is constantly monitoring, and, at the same time, the company that provides this service is attempting to perfect the tech.

people: if you object to having people listen to you, dont enable it.

Im not sure there’s anything to see here either. The critics are going to blow this out of proportion. But, YMMV.

 

[Fiachers]

I'm also skeptical of this claim from the contractor. Apple's privacy policy is pretty clear on this point, even if it doesn't mention the human oversight. I believe names and addresses might sometimes be heard if spoken aloud, but not that info is sent with contact information/addresses/location.

Lmfao at believing any tech company's "privacy policy"

 

[macfacts]

What happens on your iPhone in Las Vegas might be processed in Germany