Apple Pauses Human Review Process Of Siri Recordings Globally

Apple said that it’s suspending its grading process of Siri recordings around the world while it carries out a review. The company has made this move after The Guardian reported last week that a contractor team across the globe listens to a random, small part of Siri recordings on users after they say a wake word or push the activation button for checking the response and accuracy of the voice assistant.

According to a statement of a spokesperson from Apple:

The company’s attempts to improve Siri are similar to what Google and Amazon have been doing, by asking reviewers to analyze their voice assistants’ recordings. Both tech giants said that recording analysis is a key way they rely on to make their systems better.

Among Siri recordings, there are also private conversations like discussions with sexual encounters or doctors, The Guardian stated. However, Apple said that the recordings don’t include identifiable information and that the company analyzes them in secure facilities.

The Cupertino-based company has positioned its devices and services as privacy bastions amid an era when tech firms, including Google and Facebook, face increased scrutiny for the way they gather and distribute user data. While Apple removes certain markers in the recordings after six months, it keeps the files for two years.