Apple Stops Letting Contractors Listen To Siri Voice Recordings, Will Offer Opt-Out Later

Apple says it will temporarily suspend its practice of using human contractors to grade snippets of Siri voice recordings for accuracy. The move follows a report in The Guardian where a former worker detailed the program, claiming that contractors "regularly hear confidential medical information, drug deals, and recordings of couples having sex" as part of their job. The Verge reports: "We are committed to delivering a great Siri experience while protecting user privacy," an Apple spokesperson says in a statement to The Verge. "While we conduct a thorough review, we are suspending Siri grading globally. Additionally, as part of a future software update, users will have the ability to choose to participate in grading." Apple did not comment on whether, in addition to pausing the program where contractors listen to Siri voice recordings, it would also stop actually saving those recordings on its servers. Currently the company says it keeps recordings for six months before removing identifying information from a copy that it could keep for two years or more.

You're all such fools.

[Anonymous Coward]

The libertarians warned you.

Opt to delete Siri

[Anonymous Coward]

The main draw to Apple for me is that I consider it less evil than Google (satan incarnate). To not have any of the crap like Siri installed would make buying the expensive devices even more tempting compared to the alternative.

Re:

[fenrif]

The only reason to consider Apple less evil than Google is your own personal bias towards Apple.

Re:Opt to delete Siri

[bug_hunter]

There are other reasons.

Apple has made privacy a really big selling point. Unlike Google they're not interested as turning you into data points for advertisers.
Given that, this is a massive blunder.

That said, Apple do badly in other areas people might considered evil - walled gardens, price gouging, inability to repair, etc.

Re: Opt to delete Siri

[Monster_user]

Calling it a "massive blunder" is questionable.

Nobody wants to be spied on, but in order to develop quality voice recognition it is necessary to review the accuracy of the voice recognition.

Siri has three option, "Hey, Siri", Hold the button, and completely disabled. Presumably the ones being "spied on" are the ones who enabled "Hey, Siri" with always on voice recognition activated voice recognition...

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

Privacy isn't free, it seems. You can either pay (Apple), or accept some aggregated profiling (Google).

Well, you could opt out of the modern world. That's kinda free, although in practice there will be costs. The Google deal can be improved via ad blocking too.

Re:

[Parker Lewis]

Apple has made privacy a really big selling point

Apple marketing has made privacy a really big selling point. But it's not what happens internally in the company.

Re:

[tsa]

So what is happening internally in the company?

Re:

[Parker Lewis]

Like the story tells you, like any IT giant, they're using your data without any concerns about your privacy. Only if something get public they'll stop it.

Lesser evil

[DrYak]

Current research points out that Apple is pounding your privacy a little bit less often in the ass.

(the guys at /e/ have made an infografic summing up the research [e.foundation])

on the other hand, given that it is *Google* you're comparing against, it's nothing that Apple should be proud about.

It's like saying that compared to Satan (Google), Medusa gorgon (Apple) is much better: while it's technically true, it's definitely NOT something to brag about.

Much better to seek other alternative, e.g.: /e/ themselves rely on mi

other alternative

[DrYak]

or you could buy a boot-unlockable phone, and install some ROM such as LineageOS, but instead of installing the proprietary Google Play Services (and have them siphon the shit out of your privacy for profits), you could install the open-source re-implementation microG [microg.org]: it tries to re-implement the same "com.google.android.gms" API, but with NO hidden Google-Spyware and much more configurability (e.g.: use UnifiedNLP set of location plug-ins, enabling you to either use a different cloud server for network-a

Stores: Yalp, Aurora

[DrYak]

Store (Phonesky) {...} is in early stage and there is no usable application yet.

Yes, but Aurora Store [f-droid.org] and Yalp Store [f-droid.org] which are alternatives to fetch applications from Google Play Store that work good enough.

For applications that insist on checking whether Google's Play Store (com.android.vending) is installed, you can install FakeStore. It's empty, it does nothing, but it keeps the applications checking for the real one happy.

If you DO want the real geniune Google Blob (e.g.: for buying the apps directly from you phone, instead of only downloading them), Nanodroid [nanolx.org] have a patched versio

Re:

[Jody Bruchon]

Apple less evil than Google? They force you to buy new machines [youtube.com] and has spent over a decade screwing the customer. [youtube.com] Their strong customer service reputation from the 2000s was tossed out the window a long time ago and customers complaining to me that it takes a week to get a "Genius Bar" appointment is a pretty common thing. About the only reason anyone thinks Apple may not be evil is their anti-FBI cat-and-mouse game and their main revenue source is not selling advertisements. Their main revenue source is b

Re:

[BarbaraHudson]

' How could Apple "take down Tumblir" when the vast majority of smartphones are Android, not Apple?

It's still running under its latest owner - Verizon - but it's simply not a must-have except to the same crowd trying to be Internet-famous on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc. In other words, it's 99.44 % useless and pointless.

Also, Facebook is peak evil.

Re:

[Jody Bruchon]

Tumblr was removed from Apple’s App Store over child pornography issues [theverge.com]

After the porn ban, Tumblr users have ditched the platform as promised - Tumblr has lost 30 percent of web traffic since December [theverge.com]

Apple's removal of the app forced Tumblr to take drastic action. The sort of people who use Tumblr are disproportionately more likely to want to fit in, thus Apple's brand is very attractive to them, so it makes sense that a disproportionate amount of users would be iPhone owners, and for many user

Re:

[Jody Bruchon]

If you'd actually watch the videos, you anonymous retard jackass, you'd see in painstaking detail what Apple does to fuck the customer. Issuing warranty extensions for known hardware defects that are only valid "if the machine is within three years of the warranty" when most of the machines are already beyond the extension period...oh wait, let me guess, that's stunning and brave, right, you rabid coward Apple fanboy? There are plenty of examples of objectively factual incidents that affected millions of cu

We Need a No Default-In Law

[BrendaEM]

No one should have to beg not to be spied on.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

GDPR makes this kind of thing opt-in only, and consent must be "informed" as in not buried in 50 pages of EULA. That's the absolute baseline for privacy IMHO.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[BarbaraHudson]

Alexa his been doing this for the same reason - the only difference is that Amazon keeps the recordings and the cops can get them.

Like PRISM

[AHuxley]

it only stops when detected.

Re:

[geek]

it only stops when detected.

When did PRISM stop?

Re:

[AHuxley]

New name. FBI/DEA are back needing a direct network "in" for years of ongoing investigations. They have the new court paperwork.
Same connection back to the NSA/GCHQ.
But the new court paperwork is very domestically legal now.

Siri should be optional

[MARCELINO ARNOLD]

It suppose to have enable and disable, so that could use it when the need for it arise.

Uh, Siri IS optional

[Anonymous Coward]

You can disable "hey Siri" and then you have to manually activate it if you want to use it.

Trigger words!?

[coofercat]

> "regularly hear confidential medical information, drug deals, and recordings of couples having sex"

Unless the doctor, dealer or GF is called 'siri', none of these things should have happened, right? Did someone say "hey siri, give me a couple of wraps and some pills, here's a fifty"? No they did not - hence we can see that the trigger words are apparently woefully inadequate at keeping any semblance of privacy - even on the supposedly more private of the surveillance systems.

Re:

[RedK]

How do you think it hears the "tigger word" to begin with ? Hint : listening all the time.

Re:

[coofercat]

yes, but that's not supposed to be sent to the cloud unless it hears the trigger word. Clearly the trigger words are inadequate at that task.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

Unless the doctor, dealer or GF is called 'siri', none of these things should have happened, right? Did someone say "hey siri, give me a couple of wraps and some pills, here's a fifty"? No they did not - hence we can see that the trigger words are apparently woefully inadequate at keeping any semblance of privacy - even on the supposedly more private of the surveillance systems.

Hint: you don't need a trigger word for SIri. You can disable it so it doesn't listen.

You can accidentally trigger SIri using the h

they stop saving ????

[umghhh]

Wow that is a great milestone. If not a history of privacy then in history of BS at least....