Apple Siri Is Also Eavesdropping Users Like Alexa And Google Assistant

Kumari Shrivastav - Jul 31, 2019

It is reported that many Apple workers have unintentionally listened to private conversations of users through Siri

The Guardian has reported that many Apple workers have unintentionally listened to private conversations of users, such as appointments of doctors, amongst others, by using Siri.

Apple-Siri-contractor — Apple has contractors listen to users' conversations with Siri

As reported by the contractors, these interactions with Apple’s voice assistant are, in fact, given to some workers. They are required to grade these recordings on several factors, which includes whether an inquiry was accidentally or intentionally triggered, or whether the response provided by Apple’s voice assistant was helpful or not.

Responding to the matter, Apple told The Guardian:

In addition, this Cupertino-based technology giant stated that no more than one percent of every-day activations are analyzed with the use of this method. Nevertheless, one percent is not small anyway, given the fact that 500 million Siri-enabled devices are in use.

Moreover, Apple said that the company studies these interactions in secured facilities, and none of them are connected to any Apple ID that could identify the users. The tech giant also emphasized that the external contractors are forced to do so by “strict confidentiality requirements."

As a matter of fact, both Google and Amazon use their own smart assistants like Google Assistant and Alexa for eavesdropping users’ conversations; therefore, Apple isn’t the only one doing this.

According to Amazon, the recordings its staff analyzes aims at improving the experience. Google Assistant is also used in the same way. In fact, users of both Amazon and Google have the choice to delete those recordings. However, with Apple and Siri, they do not have that option.