Apple just shared news that, it will suspend a program that allowed its staff to listen to conversations people have had with the Siri voice assistant.
According to Apple ” Hey Siri, what’s the weather today? ” someone at Apple could listen to a recording of that question. Apple says it doesn’t listen to all conversations, just a small fraction. The company also says the recordings are anonymous.
Apple says its “grading” process which is also performed by Google, Amazon and all three companies say it’s to improve speech recognition. While Apple hasn’t hidden the fact that it uploads this data anonymously.
Reports have said, employees who listen have heard about drug deals, medical details and more.
Apple says Siri grading is anonymous, and the data sent back to Apple is encrypted and randomized, which means it would be hard to identify a person unless specific things were mentioned in a recording, like an address or a name.
Due to all this Apple, which has been putting a bigger focus on privacy, has been slow to add some features offered elsewhere.
Google and Amazon let you review and delete everything you’ve asked their voice assistants.
“User voice recordings are saved for a six-month period so that the recognition system can utilize them to better understand the user’s voice, After six months, another copy is saved, without its identifier, for use by Apple in improving and developing Siri for up to two years.”
Where as Apple on the other hand, Apple does not let you review the questions you’ve asked Siri and has not yet rolled out a feature that lets you opt out of the possibility that your voice recordings will reviewed by employees. Company says its working on to improve voice security.
Apple said in a statement ” We are committed to delivering a great Siri experience while protecting user privacy. 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.” While its still unclear whether it will be same as Google or Amazon, Apple has still yet to reply on that.
