The names of your contacts. If the application notifies you that this is how it works, and you think the "names" of people in your contacts should remain ONLY on your phone, you should definitely not use it. You should not use anything that does things you don't want it to do. I don't think it should be scandalized though.
One of the biggest problems I have with it, is that it is taking a whole contact list of people who may not want their names in a database.
All of the defenders on here act like it is no big deal, but I see no legitimate reason for them doing it. If their software can transcribe someone speaking the word "transcribe" why does it need the names of people from a private contact list on the phone? It should already know or at the very least once it downloads the audio file be able to transcribe based on that. I used to work customer service, and other than unusual last names how hard is it really going to be for this thing to translate "John Doe " into text? And last names are iffy because of pronunciation. That's me throwing your side a bone there, because I personally think its totally unnecessary.
It's how the software does its primary function though. If you don't want it to be smart in how it identifies names you're familiar with (in your contact list), that's your business. It's not a matter of the program sneaking behind your back, it sounds like its more a matter of you not understanding how the application functions. You're thinking of it more like a "magic box" that makes things happen through sheer "smarts", and not something that needs assistance and "hints" to improve accuracy.
Again maybe they need to download a dictionary into their system, if it needs that much help. My problem is that like you said many people think its a magic box, and will not bother reading the EULA, thus rendering it useless, look at how many people have been tagged with tool bar add ons for downloading to their PC's hidden during he Download, and not read about in the agreement because they skipped it.
This can be said of a bunch of things. Google has, in fact, been required to provide disclosures of how long it hangs onto data provided to it.
That's kind of the point their promises are worthless, and their is plenty of track records to prove it. I am not saying they are like google and profiteering, but that the security they apply to data, and the security a bank provides to its vaults are 2 entirely separate things.
Honestly, that's not good enough. Google is tracking your usage patterns, viewing the content of your emails and serving you ads, recording your browsing characteristics, and more. You are probably not paranoid about Google because you're simply not aware of everything they are doing with your data, and you're deriving too much benefit to rethink using them.
Did you realize that AT&T keeps extensive and detailed records of your iPhone Internet usage? They used to even send you these records, but people use the Internet so much on these devices, it became far too much information to send on a monthly basis on paper. AT&T also knows where you're standing. Do you know how long they hold onto this data? Do you know they "sell" services to the Government allowing them to snoop all of your communications?
I quite honestly just don't get why so few seem to care about this sort of thing.
I'm thinking you should take a step back, and stop downloading apps... especially FREE ones (the ones that are financed through ad companies like Ad Mob who make your usage patterns viewable to everyone in aggregate).
When a company provides a FREE application and shows you their privacy policy and EULA before you start using it... and you AGREE... there's really nothing else to say. You just have to accept that some people cherish certain forms of privacy less than you do, and that privacy you might otherwise cherish is being violated on a daily basis outside of your knowledge.
oh I agree, other than the problem is that this ap is not collecting the down-loaders personal info, but rather the personal info of every person in their contact list.
kind of sneaky if one were so inclined to use said info, I don't recall seeing a disclosure stating they will never sell, nor profit from their collection of it.
I might be a little less skeptical if ANY of these companies provided disclaimers that offered any sort of real, legal, or financial ramifications should said company break their own EULA, but I don't recall that, nor do I expect it.
Excellent post by the way.
