Comment by jeffdubin
1 year ago
It's hard to trust Apple to keep their word on privacy when an "accidental" Siri activation potentially results in that recording (or related data) finding its way not just to Apple for, say, speech recognition, but all the way to advertisers.
Transparency would be appreciated here, Apple. Is there any ability for a user to review all recordings made and submitted to Siri? I want to say that Android has this ability via Google Takeout.
“The only clue that users seemingly had of Siri's alleged spying was eerily accurate targeted ads that appeared after they had just been talking about specific items like Air Jordans or brands like Olive Garden, Reuters noted (claims which remain disputed).”
It’s very common for users to associate their conversations with ads and believe that they are being listened to, across many platforms including those without microphones. The article does not appear to provide any non-anecdotal evidence of this.
How common is it for Apple to pay 8-figure settlements for spurious correlations?
It seems confirmed correct that yes siri does incorrectly activate, and anyone with an iphone knows this. What is unsubstantiated and denied by apple is that those siri recordings were used for advertising.
I was one of the people claiming this. I’ll tell you why I thought it.
1. I’m seeing ads for trending topics or those tied to things I’ve said or typed (targeted).
2. On one or two platforms, it was usually the same ads. Especially the targeted ones. They didn’t change often.
3. My friend and I discuss a rare topic.
4. Thirty minutes later, my app refreshes to show an ad on the rare topic from No. 3.
5. In each case, the only input for moving that information into a computer was my phone’s microphone.
6. Prior investigations showed some other devices, esp Alexa-style, were transmitting lots of data to their companies even when people weren’t talking to them. Their terms allowed their recordings to be used by the company, too.
So, we believed it was another example of a product listening in on us for money.
Edit to add:
Just minutes ago, Siri said she didn’t understand what we were saying. We never said “Hey Siri” or anything remotely like that. It keeps happening at least once a week. It’s clearly listening to some degree when it’s not supposed to. The only question is if there’s a recording of that.
Irrelevant unless you're offering some type of proof to the contrary
what about this line:
"Through the settlement, customers can not only get monetary relief but also ensure that their private phone calls are permanently deleted."
private phone calls??