No they aren’t. “Hey Siri” is processed on-device. Unless Siri beeps to tell you it’s been activated, nothing is transmitted off of the device.
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Thousands of Amazon Employees Listen to Alexa Requests for Improvement Purposes [Updated]
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Wrong.
Turn on Airplane mode and ask Siri something. No Internet connection... no Siri. You think the cutesy, clever replies that were Siri's hallmark were AI generated? No. Apple staff monitor queries for trends and craft "delightful" responses for common ones.
According to Apple, they process and store your queries for up to two years for the same reasons as all other voice assistant services. Apple anonymizes the queries. Of course, Google and Amazon do the same. That should satisfy everyone except the most paranoid. If you turn Siri off, Apple will delete the collected queries.
No. As noted in the article, Amazon does not de-identify the recording. An account number, first name and device serial number are associated with it.
Furthermore, this may be of interest you:
One can only imagine what Amazon employees may consider to be an “amusing recording”.
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Apple probably employs more lawyers than software developers.
There is nothing assuring or explicit about EULAs. They should be replaced by a certification program that rates a service's data collection trustworthiness. There should be easily understood scores for how well anonymity is preserved, and how secure the process is.
Privacy is not something you can reasonably expect when you willingly invite a personal assistant into your life. Discretion and security, however, is what people want to preserve.
Wow he bolded it, it must be true!!
Hey Siri - the detection and activation of Siri - is absolutely handled on-device. You won't receive a response without an internet connection though.
While the holy grail of machine learning is unsupervised self learning, that is only possible in very limited cases. It takes data to train a speech recognition engine as it does for any other ML tech. I worked on projects in Bell Labs more than 20 years ago where we were listing to recordings made during speech recognition attempts to identify issues with the existing models and make improvements. Why do you think they play those "This call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes." messages when you call a contact center for service? For any form of statistical modeling, you have to have data to train from and you need to get feedback on error cases to make improvements. If you don't like it, then don't use it.
The prompt is processed on-device? Sure. So what? The common misperception that Apple is promoting is that queries aren't processed off-device, and therefore are totally private. Apple's marketing is clever at stating half truths in a manner that makes customers assume the best.
Until their private information is used in a way that’s unacceptable to them. THEN they’ll care (and whine incessantly like a toddler).
"Hey Alexa, how does the FBI, the CIA, WikiLeaks, Google Ads, and the People's Liberation Army know everything I do and say on my phone and computer?"
Myactivity.google.com
you can see all the OK google requests you made from your android device, or google home.
google stores the Audio recording of your voice requests in your activity indefinitely, including all the background noises , so anytime that the OK google activates the background is recorded and saved.
Hardly Anonymous.
Apple as I understand it, truly send the requests anonymous to the services for processing and sends the request back using a unique non identifying ID
you can see all the OK google requests you made from your android device, or google home.
google stores the Audio recording of your voice requests in your activity indefinitely, including all the background noises , so anytime that the OK google activates the background is recorded and saved.
Hardly Anonymous.
Apple as I understand it, truly send the requests anonymous to the services for processing and sends the request back using a unique non identifying ID
This is why my Amazon Echo is on the shelf in my closet and will never be turned on by myself. Probably need to figure out how to 'zero' it and sell it.
Seriously? It was a joke aka sarcasm. (Smiley face, no?)
My jest is that while Alexa and other AI voice assistants seem to be improving with newer software enhancements or with help from an inside team, regardless if anyone is listening or not, the joke is that Siri has more or less operated the same since its launch (and not in a good way). Did I really have to spell this out or do you just like to complain?
Seriously? It was a joke aka sarcasm. (Smiley face, no?)
My jest is that while Alexa and other AI voice assistants seem to be improving with newer software enhancements or with help from an inside team, regardless if anyone is listening or not, the joke is that Siri has more or less operated the same since its launch (and not in a good way). Did I really have to spell this out or do you just like to complain?
I don’t pick up on the sarcasm on forum posts unless it’s really really obvious! So I apologise for missing it and the smiley face.
Just get so wound up with the tin foil hat brigade conspiracy theorists, who then go and use the internet or Facebook or any other social media platform... they’ll probably tell you the world is indeed flat!
And Yeap, Amazon use the data to improve Alexa, and software updates. Apple have as you said literally installed Siri, then left it, and that was several years ago now! So if they too have staff listening to what Apple devices hear on the Siri command, as this story states, just what are they using that information for..... if it’s not to improve Siri hmm.. makes you think.
Then you don’t understand Siri. Because Siri is server-based, and requires an Internet connection for Siri to work in the first place, so if you don’t have an Internet connection, Siri is useless or if you disable Siri altogether. So no, you’re incorrect, Siri can’t be listening to you ‘24/7’.