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Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) is "in contact" with Apple after a former Apple contractor asked the DPC to investigate Apple's practice of allowing employees to listen to Siri recordings, reports Reuters.

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The contractor, Thomas Le Bonniec, requested the assistance of the DPC in May and called for greater protection under the EU's privacy laws.

DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said that the DPC "engaged with Apple" when the Siri issue first arose last year, and Apple "made some changes," but now the DPC has additional questions.
"However, we have followed up again with Apple following the release of this public statement and await responses," he said, in reference to the letter. "In addition, it should be noted that the European Data Protection Board is working on the production of guidance in the area of voice assistant technologies."
Last July, contractors working on Siri quality control told The Guardian that they were listening to Siri audio recordings for Apple and regularly heard sensitive information that Apple device owners might not want shared, even with the data anonymized.

Apple came under fire for concealing the quality control practice and not making it clear to customers that some Siri recordings are listened to by employees for quality control purposes.

Apple in August 2019 ultimately suspended its Siri quality control program to overhaul how it works. Later in August, Apple ended all transcription and voice grading work done through contracting companies.

In October, with the release of iOS 13.2, Apple added a toggle that allows users to opt out of sharing voice recordings to improve Siri and Dictation, and it provided a way to delete all Siri and Dictation history.
Apple resumed Siri quality control practices in the fall with the release of the opt-out option. Siri quality control is no longer handled by third-party contractors and is done in-house, and Apple has made changes to minimize the amount of data that reviewers have access to.

Along with further scrutiny from Irish regulators, Apple is facing a class-action lawsuit for allowing contractors to listen to and grade the anonymized Siri conversations for quality control purposes.

Article Link: Irish Regulators 'in Contact' With Apple Over Siri Quality Control Program
 
So, by the article's own admittance:
Later in August, Apple ended all transcription and voice grading work done through contracting companies.
Yet:
Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) is "in contact" with Apple after a former Apple contractor asked the DPC to investigate Apple's practice of allowing employees to listen to Siri recordings
Would that not mean that the "former Apple contractor" would no longer be privy to what apple is doing since they have not been involved since August? What could they possibly know in regards to how things are done now if they are no longer involved and the process has since changed?

I am all for a governing body putting in legal protections so that we can hold accountable anyone who oversteps common sense privacy restriction... I just don't see how a former contractor can shed light on policies enacted after they were no longer involved.
 
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I honestly don't know what Siri is anymore. It's linked to every app and integrated in all the search menus.

Is Siri now search?
It used to be a separate entity in previous versions of iOS but has morphed into who knows what in later versions.

There's so many toggles to it in settings now along with app links - that it's become overwhelmingly suspicious.

I just turn off every reference to it wherever I find it. Apple blew it
 
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So, by the article's own admittance:

Yet:

Would that not mean that the "former Apple contractor" would no longer be privy to what apple is doing since they have not been involved since August? What could they possibly know in regards to how things are done now if they are no longer involved and the process has since changed?

I am all for a governing body putting in legal protections so that we can hold accountable anyone who oversteps common sense privacy restriction... I just don't see how a former contractor can shed light on policies enacted after they were no longer involved.
He might know that Apple employees listen to Siri calls because Apple disclosed it to everyone in their notice about the update to Siri's privacy protections. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/08/improving-siris-privacy-protections/

Could it be they are asking follow up questions trying to gain further clarity?
 
There is a lot of information missing from this article.

From May to July 2019, Thomas Le Bonniec was hired by Globe Technical Services (GTS), a subcontractor for Apple in Cork, Ireland, to transcribe recordings from Apple devices in France. (Apple has other subcontractors in cities such as Paris, France and Barcelona, Spain.)

During that time, Le Bonniec says that he transcribed hundreds of clearly unintentional recordings every day as part of the Bulk Data Team. Those transcribed recordings were then linked to people's data by the Development Data Team.

Le Bonniec says that the recordings that he transcribed included information about people's children (including their education); health and medication; religious and political beliefs; and sexuality and pornography.

Despite all of that information being considered “sensitive” under EU law and having the most protection, neither Apple nor GTS have been investigated.

Therefore, on 20 May 2020, Le Bonniec formally requested that the European Data Protection Board and its members (which includes the Data Protection Commissioner in Ireland) investigate Apple and “other tech companies following the same practices” (such as Google and Amazon).

Le Bonniec acknowledges that his request breaches a non-disclosure agreement and implies that he knows that Apple has not changed its practice since it became public last year.
 
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He might know that Apple employees listen to Siri calls because Apple disclosed it to everyone in their notice about the update to Siri's privacy protections. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/08/improving-siris-privacy-protections/

Could it be they are asking follow up questions trying to gain further clarity?

Two things: First; everyone listens to sample AI requests... Microsoft, Google, Amazon, all of them. Second; It's the only way to accurately see if the AI is understanding requests and where it's tripping up. Not doing so is like asking students to grade their own SATs. If they don't know it's wrong, they are going to say it's right and keep it pushing — not learning anything. The real issue is that the practice wasn't common knowledge, it was however, in the terms of service well before it was news. But this isn't a thing that should ever only be lobbed at Apple — not the listening. You can blame Apple for not including an opt-out, for not listing all the pulled recordings for the user so they can determine if they are clean for privacy, or for providing an option for wiping them after the fact, however, the practice of human listeners is industry standard.
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I honestly don't know what Siri is anymore. It's linked to every app and integrated in all the search menus.

Is Siri now search?
It used to be a separate entity in previous versions of iOS but has morphed into who knows what in later versions.
Siri is your device's assistant, not just the voice. So while the main interface is vocal — searching, launching, and general requests all leverage it's machine learning.

There's so many toggles to it in settings now along with app links - that it's become overwhelmingly suspicious.

I just turn off every reference to it wherever I find it. Apple blew it
Why would it be suspicious? It does everything on the device and gives you individual controls to have a say how pervasive its influence its effect on your experience is. It should be more suspicious if it had fewer toggles, meaning that there is less nuance in its control. I seriously don't understand your reasoning here.

Apple "blew it" on a lot of things but I think you just don't understand how much control you have here.
 
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Two things: First; everyone listens to sample AI requests... Microsoft, Google, Amazon, all of them. Second; It's the only way to accurately see if the AI is understanding requests and where it's tripping up. Not doing so is like asking students to grade their own SATs. If they don't know it's wrong, they are going to say it's right and keep it pushing — not learning anything. The real issue is that the practice wasn't common knowledge, it was however, in the terms of service well before it was news. But this isn't a thing that should ever only be lobbed at Apple — not the listening. You can blame Apple for not including an opt-out, for not listing all the pulled recordings for the user so they can determine if they are clean for privacy, or for providing an option for wiping them after the fact, however, the practice of human listeners is industry standard.
Did you intend this for someone else? Your quote just repeats well known information. Not really sure of the point you're trying to make.
 
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No, that really isn't how the world works. (Not outside of ConspiracyWorld, anyway.)

Finally someone in here with common sense. After I saw how many Likes that harebrained comment got I was about to give up on reading further until I saw this.

Google has almost permanently been at odds with UK, European, Asian, Indian etc etc regulators for over a decade now. They have been involved in countless privacy scandals, had heavy fines levelled at them, and had to change their policies to fit different markets. Their legal team and backlog is vast.

Apple has had very little by way of privacy concerns in comparison.

How anyone actually living on planet earth could be unaware of that, especially if you're posting on a tech site (and I'm assuming interested in tech news), you should have at least half a clue.

And Amazon, seriously? Amazon? It's a virtual conveyor belt of privacy faux-pas.

Jeez. Be serious guys.
 
Did you intend this for someone else? Your quote just repeats well known information. Not really sure of the point you're trying to make.
No, this is absolutely for you.

You said:
He might know that Apple employees listen to Siri calls because Apple disclosed it to everyone in their notice about the update to Siri's privacy protections.

...and you alluded to it like it was the only Apple that does it, and that was the contribution he was offering was shedding light on something that is actually the industry standard process in how this is handled.
 
Having worked for a companied home assistant product in the past, I was pretty shocked at the lack of controls in place to voice recordings. They were tightening up access control when I decided to leave, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.

I have (now had) a deep trust in Apple’s respect for privacy, and I feel like an idiot for assuming Apple wasn’t listening in on my Siri transactions.

After reading this article, ny trust is broken. No more implicit trust for Apple. I was already opted out of the information sharing program , and deleted my Siri history.

I usually don’t stay up on technology news , so I’m glad that I came across this article. All data should be handled as private unless access is explicitly requested and granted. No slipping in into EULA’s/other docs that probably won’t ever be read.
 
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No, this is absolutely for you.

You said:

...and you alluded to it like it was the only Apple that does it, and that was the contribution he was offering was shedding light on something that is actually the industry standard process in how this is handled.
I alluded to no such thing. The question asks how does the former contractor know what Apple is doing. I provided the answer. The contractor and everyone else knows what Apple is doing because Apple told everyone. I even provided the link to what Apple said. A direct answer to a direct question. Nothing in my quote implies Apple was the only one.
 
I alluded to no such thing. The question asks how does the former contractor know what Apple is doing. I provided the answer. The contractor and everyone else knows what Apple is doing because Apple told everyone. I even provided the link to what Apple said. A direct answer to a direct question. Nothing in my quote implies Apple was the only one.
With all due respect you are either being naive or you are being purposefully obtuse. You said:
He might know that Apple employees listen to Siri calls because Apple disclosed it to everyone in their notice about the update to Siri's privacy protections.
Everyone knows. As stated, not only was that "leaked" before the backlash in an article, but Apple was clear — both in their response and in the ToS that this is done and should be expected to be done. What you are referring to is not only common knowledge but generally used to allude that Apple's practices are insecure.

The question asks how does the former contractor know what Apple is doing.
No one asked that question — it was expected that if you are hired as a contractor for a company, you would know the practices implemented so you could do your job effectively. As for knowing practices after the fact, companies to generally tell their out-going contractors of the policies being implemented to replace them, so any insight he could have would be circumstantial at best, and hearsay at worst.
 
No one asked that question — it was expected that if you are hired as a contractor for a company, you would know the practices implemented so you could do your job effectively. As for knowing practices after the fact, companies to generally tell their out-going contractors of the policies being implemented to replace them, so any insight he could have would be circumstantial at best, and hearsay at worst.
You asked the question right here:
Would that not mean that the "former Apple contractor" would no longer be privy to what apple is doing since they have not been involved since August? What could they possibly know in regards to how things are done now if they are no longer involved and the process has since changed?
I answered that question with this:
He might know that Apple employees listen to Siri calls because Apple disclosed it to everyone in their notice about the update to Siri's privacy protections. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/08/improving-siris-privacy-protections/
I'm not sure what you're reading into my comments but you really shouldn't. What I bolded in your comment is the question. What I bolded in my comment is the answer. That is a 1-to-1 question-to-answer. Not sure how I can be any more clear.
 
You asked the question right here:
Would that not mean that the "former Apple contractor" would no longer be privy to what apple is doing since they have not been involved since August? What could they possibly know in regards to how things are done now if they are no longer involved and the process has since changed?

I answered that question with this:
He might know that Apple employees listen to Siri calls because Apple disclosed it to everyone in their notice about the update to Siri's privacy protections. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/08/improving-siris-privacy-protections/
I'm not sure what you're reading into my comments but you really shouldn't. What I bolded in your comment is the question. What I bolded in my comment is the answer. That is a 1-to-1 question-to-answer. Not sure how I can be any more clear.
This clarifies nothing.

You saying "He might know that Apple employees listen to Siri calls because Apple disclosed it to everyone in their notice about the update to Siri's privacy protections" which is not new information, and definitely not the basis for regulators to seek them out for inquiry, doesn't answer the question. Apple has said as much and, again, common knowledge in the industry as to how audits are done. It may be something else — possibly — but what you have indicated is not something a contractor would be brought in for as they can just ask Apple "can you verify you hired contractors to perform audio audits of select Siri requests".
 
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