Siri Keeps Your Data For Two Years 124
New submitter LeadSongDog writes with news that Apple has provided information on how long it holds onto voice search data used by its digital assistant software Siri. Speaking to Wired, an Apple representative said the data is kept for two years after the initial query.
"Here’s what happens. Whenever you speak into Apple’s voice activated personal digital assistant, it ships it off to Apple’s data farm for analysis. Apple generates a random numbers to represent the user and it associates the voice files with that number. This number — not your Apple user ID or email address — represents you as far as Siri’s back-end voice analysis system is concerned. Once the voice recording is six months old, Apple “disassociates” your user number from the clip, deleting the number from the voice file. But it keeps these disassociated files for up to 18 more months for testing and product improvement purposes."
This information came in response to requests for clarification of Siri's privacy policy, which was not very clear as written. The director of privacy group Big Brother Watch said, "There needs to be a very high justification for retaining such intrusive data for longer than is absolutely necessary to provide the service."
Backups (Score:2, Insightful)
How long are the backups of these systems kept for? Do they require a subpoena to get those backups, or will Apple cheerfully hand it over to any agency that asks?
Siri sucks! Stop making it better! (Score:4, Insightful)
My guess is the overlap between "people who complained Siri wasn't accurate" and "people who dont want apple keeping any Siri data so they can make it better" is pretty close to perfect.
Google reads your mail. Apple listens to your ravings. Don't like it, don't use it. And they only keep 'your' (ie identifable) data 6 months.
Rotten to the core. (Score:1, Insightful)
I am getting tired of Apples continuing Privacy abused, first they sell their customers to the highest bidder now this.
Even Siri was ruined with advertising http://www.inquisitr.com/256025/steve-wozniak-says-apple-ruined-siri-technology-after-acquisition/ [inquisitr.com] "Steve says he initially loved Siri because it could accurately answer questions such as “What are the five largest lakes in California?” and “What are the prime numbers greater than 87?” . To which Wozniak replied, “It’s incredible. It’s like it understands ‘greater than.’”
Wozniak also notes that his former question about California Lakes now brings up lakefront properties while his question about prime numbers now displays information about prime ribs."
There EULA's have got so abuse they are subject to ridicule by South Park http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HumancentiPad [wikipedia.org] in HumancentiPad
Three words "Don't be Evil"
Re:Comparison with Google search? (Score:5, Insightful)
They make data anonymous after 18 months (Score:4, Insightful)
...and have since 2007 These two great blog posts cover the details "Taking steps to further improve our privacy practices" http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/taking-steps-to-further-improve-our.html [blogspot.co.uk] and "
How long should Google remember searches? " http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2007/06/how-long-should-google-remember.html [blogspot.co.uk] an example from it "By anonymizing our server logs after 18-24 months, we think we’re striking the right balance between two goals: continuing to improve Google’s services for you, while providing more transparency and certainty about our retention practices." Google are suprisingly forthcoming about how and what they do with your data, which clashes sharply with Apple(pretend the don't) or Microsoft(who run hate campaigns)
Re:Rotten to the core. (Score:3, Insightful)
question about prime numbers now displays information about prime ribs."
In Siri's defense, prime rib is pretty damn awesome
Re:Comparison with Google search? (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, turning off search history doesn't even do as much as you say. They still use everything you enter into their services, every keystroke, how long you spent looking at a page, when you searched and from where. They use all of that and more to target ads (which many of us never see anyway thanks to Adblock Plus).
Turning off search history hides this data from YOU. They still have it. They still have it associated with your account, and even if you are logged out it's associated with your IP address. Since they know your IP address when you're logged out as well as when you're logged in, ALL your queries are associated with your account if you've ever logged in from that IP. Even "anonymous" users who have no account with Google have shadow profiles associated with their IPs and search patterns. And it's safe to assume given how cheap storage space is that this data is retained forever. I'd be surprised if Google has ever deleted any of their search records since they created the company.
The only way you can be anonymous with Google is to use a proxy while searching. I suggest using TOR when you want your searches to be anonymous, or use Duckduckgo.
Don't like it? Don't use it. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Comparison with Google search? (Score:4, Insightful)
Perfectly reasonable. Myself, I've never seen an advertisement that was legitimately helpful. I'm dubious that there ever could be such a thing because advertising is fundamentally an adversarial relationship between the advertiser and the target of the ad (you): you have money that you want to keep, or get the most value for when you do spend it; they want to give you as little as possible while taking as much of your money as they can. You are fighting each other, you have competing interests. You can see why there's a huge incentive for them to lie, or get as close to lying as they legally can, and emotionally manipulate you in their pursuit of your dollars. I find attempts at such manipulation repugnant, which is probably why I walk around most of the day with a mild nauseated sensation. Still, I'd choose that over the syrupy haze of blissful ignorance.
Google's official ads might be the least intrusive, but their disguised ads are rather pernicious, IMO. For example, every product you are shown when using Google Shopping is a paid product advertisement, every single product. They are ALL ads, and nowhere is this disclosed clearly. They are trying to pass it off as a store like Amazon (which has plenty of hidden ads too, but they at least make a passing nod towards identifying them) but it's more like the yellow pages. You have to pay Google for your product to appear there.
Re:They make data anonymous after 18 months (Score:1, Insightful)
Google are suprisingly forthcoming about how and what they do with your data, which clashes sharply with Apple(pretend the don't) or Microsoft(who run hate campaigns)
It's notable that you left out the part where both Apple and MS have better actual policies, and instead focus on the way they talk about them.
Re:Sample data... (Score:0, Insightful)
Google is free. And in return you give up your privacy.
Apple is NOT free. And in return you give up a large chunk of money AND your privacy.
One of these is a really shitty deal.