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Siri records fights, doctor’s appointments, and sex, and contractors hear it

arstechnica.com

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Re: Siri records fights, doctor’s appointments, and sex, and contractors hear it

#61

Post by Jabbles »

pjc50 wrote: post #50
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that while the Google recording data was arguably "anonymized", the reviewers of the leaked recordings were able to in many cases find enough personal information to contact the people recorded. Which means they were not, in fact, anonymized. "We let ordinary Flemish people hear some of their own recordings. ‘This is undeniably my own voice’, says one man, clearly surprised." "A couple from Waasmunster immediate…

Another factor here: there aren't so many Flemish speakers, so the probability of a recording being reviewed by someone who can identify the speaker is much higher.

In this case the user had read their address out, the reporters went there and spoke to them.

Re: Siri records fights, doctor’s appointments, and sex, and contractors hear it

#62

Post by amelius »

xiphias2 wrote: post #44

It would be great if people could review what voice recordings were sent to the companies past week. After that people could make a decision whether they want to continue using the product.

This would be a security issue. What if your SO's private conversations are reported to you?

Re: Siri records fights, doctor’s appointments, and sex, and contractors hear it

#63

Post by cmiles74 »

amelius wrote: post #62
xiphias2 wrote: post #44

It would be great if people could review what voice recordings were sent to the companies past week. After that people could make a decision whether they want to continue using the product.

This would be a security issue. What if your SO's private conversations are reported to you?

I agree that would be an awkward situation for myself and SO, but I disagree that it would represent a security issue. If the data is being sent to the vendor, I believe we should be able to audit that data. IMHO, deciding otherwise is giving far too much power to the vendor.

Re: Siri records fights, doctor’s appointments, and sex, and contractors hear it

#64

Post by wil421 »

forgotmyhnacc wrote: post #24

Many HNers have a weird belief that Apple is somehow a privacy focused company, despite it actually being no more private than Facebook or Google. The main concern people have (voice assistants beside) is data gathering for ads, which Apple does for their app search, among other places. Also, their data centers are in China, which gives Chinese authorities full access to their iCloud account. If you want privacy, don…

Google makes business off of selling ads. Apple makes their business off selling hardware and software.

Re: Siri records fights, doctor’s appointments, and sex, and contractors hear it

#65

Post by forofdo »

> Voice assistants appear to be yet another instance where a technology has been developed and adopted faster than its consequences have been fully thought-out.

What a rubbish. This is totally expected and thought-out. It's even worse, this is probably the #1 reason voice assistants exist at all, to provide these companies with even more valuable data. I cannot imagine the existence of Siri (or any other voice assistent) without a business model behind it.

Re: Siri records fights, doctor’s appointments, and sex, and contractors hear it

#66

Post by Operyl »

ben_w wrote: post #52
Aloha wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never quite gotten the allure of voice assistants myself, it just seems like a really frustrating way to use a computer.

I use it sometimes. For household use I pretty much agree: my partner has Alexa set up to turn lights on and off, and it only works about 70% of the time. Apple doesn’t, I think, say it’s Siri which is running this keyboard which I am using right now to “write” this content, but I assume the voice recognition engine is the same one, and it’s significantly more useful than Alexa. For example the only edits I have made…

I agree, and then that technology is put to use on the pretty well put together accessibility tech showing up in iOS 13:

https://youtu.be/aqoXFCCTfm4

Re: Siri records fights, doctor’s appointments, and sex, and contractors hear it

#67

Post by kdmccormick »

forofdo wrote: post #65

> Voice assistants appear to be yet another instance where a technology has been developed and adopted faster than its consequences have been fully thought-out. What a rubbish. This is totally expected and thought-out. It's even worse, this is probably the #1 reason voice assistants exist at all, to provide these companies with even more valuable data. I cannot imagine the existence of Siri (or any other voice assist…

Um, could the business model be to provide value to users in order to make the systems they are loaded on more attractive products?

Sure, a huge part of the Siri/Alexa/Assistant business model is probably data collection. But does that mean all voice assistants ever inherently have no real end-user value? I don't regularly use them, but I would be very happy to find a reliable way to change music and send messages with my voice while driving.

Before the era of mass data harvesting, arguably useful utilities like the MS Office suite were loaded onto OSs to make users more likely to stay on that platform.

Re: Siri records fights, doctor’s appointments, and sex, and contractors hear it

#68

Post by blub »

forgotmyhnacc wrote: post #24

Many HNers have a weird belief that Apple is somehow a privacy focused company, despite it actually being no more private than Facebook or Google. The main concern people have (voice assistants beside) is data gathering for ads, which Apple does for their app search, among other places. Also, their data centers are in China, which gives Chinese authorities full access to their iCloud account. If you want privacy, don…

I agree with your general recommendations to not rely on corps and to use crypto, but it's not a weird belief, it's a fact. Google is bar Facebook the worst company in the world at privacy and their whole business model is focused around subverting privacy.

There are many studies done by non-profits and government organizations which prove this. They also repeatedly got fined for their rotten practices.

That doesn't mean Apple are saints. Any US corporation is suspect and a feature like Siri is broken by design and can't be implemented with privacy in mind.

Re: Siri records fights, doctor’s appointments, and sex, and contractors hear it

#69

Post by blub »

panpanna wrote: post #39
forgotmyhnacc wrote: post #24

Many HNers have a weird belief that Apple is somehow a privacy focused company, despite it actually being no more private than Facebook or Google. The main concern people have (voice assistants beside) is data gathering for ads, which Apple does for their app search, among other places. Also, their data centers are in China, which gives Chinese authorities full access to their iCloud account. If you want privacy, don…

> Many HNers have a weird belief that Apple is somehow a privacy focused company Note how the top comments here branch into criticizing Google? It takes a lot to change people's opinions in such matters. It just easier to repeat the same old same old arguments and continue with our lives...

Google is the worst at privacy. Even when Apple or any other company fucks up it's always worth noting that, maybe it dents their undeserved reputation even more.

Re: Siri records fights, doctor’s appointments, and sex, and contractors hear it

#70

Post by sorokod »

ben_w wrote: post #52
Aloha wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never quite gotten the allure of voice assistants myself, it just seems like a really frustrating way to use a computer.

I use it sometimes. For household use I pretty much agree: my partner has Alexa set up to turn lights on and off, and it only works about 70% of the time. Apple doesn’t, I think, say it’s Siri which is running this keyboard which I am using right now to “write” this content, but I assume the voice recognition engine is the same one, and it’s significantly more useful than Alexa. For example the only edits I have made…

"my partner has Alexa set up to turn lights on and off"

Do you really need the help of a megacorp to turn lights on and off?

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