Siri illegally recorded users...

[Byker28i]

For profit of course

Regularly recorded private conversations, without anyone saying 'hey siri ', so stuff could be sold to third parties for targeted ads.




https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/01/apple-...
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-pay-95-millio...

Edited by Byker28i on Thursday 2nd January 22:25

[Getragdogleg]

How unexpected, Siri devices were listening the whole time.

[Byker28i]

and Apple claimed it was 'unintentional' but still sold the information...

Somehow managed to escape a minimum of $1.5bn in fines....

[captain_cynic]

Byker28i said:

and Apple claimed it was 'unintentional' but still sold the information...

Somehow managed to escape a minimum of $1.5bn in fines....

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you.

This is what I've been saying for years. Apple is just as bad as Google and Meta, worse even as at least Google and Meta are being honest about collecting and selling your data.

[maffski]

Alternatively some smart lawyers have managed to track down a few cases where Siri was triggered through mishearing or kept listening after someone had stopped talking to it and have correctly figured that Apple would prefer to pay a 100 million dollars rather than be forced to detail their algorithms in court documents.

[Lucas Ayde]

I'm shocked, SHOCKED I tell you.

Who would have thought that a Silicon Valley company would spy on you for personal data?!

So glad we can trust Amazon and Google who also have similar devices/services. I'm sure they would NEVER do anything like that.


Even if you could somehow trust these spying, lying corporations you can bet that intelligence agencies have backdoors into them and on top of that, you are vulnerable to being hacked. 'Smart speakers' like Echo do have some use for home automation but just bear all that in mind. I see that there's now a smart speaker device available that's dedicated to Home Assistant so that might be the way to go.

[rodericb]

There have been a few threads here about various things (Siri, Facebook, Whatsapp, Google.....) "listening in" and there's usually a very vocal few who completely refute it, say it's technically impossible etcetera etcetera.....

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

(lots of posts and replies missing from that one!)


https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[mikeiow]

Byker28i said:

and Apple claimed it was 'unintentional' but still sold the information...

Somehow managed to escape a minimum of $1.5bn in fines....

How is there not some form of regulator to dish out that level of fine?

Silly me, thinking the US Government might want to take action on this kind of totally surprising behaviour

[Lucas Ayde]

rodericb said:

There have been a few threads here about various things (Siri, Facebook, Whatsapp, Google.....) "listening in" and there's usually a very vocal few who completely refute it, say it's technically impossible etcetera etcetera.....

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

(lots of posts and replies missing from that one!)


https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Yeah - It's certainly not technically impossible - not by any means. Those things are small computers with a super-sensitive microphone, connected to the internet. And proprietary software controlling them. As far as I know, no 'rooting/jailbreak' has been developed for any of them either (or made public at any rate) - which is pretty telling. Just about every other piece of consumer electronics with appreciable processing power has been rooted.

Just because they seem to only activate when you say the 'wake word' (which is processed locally) does not mean that they can not be made to activate the microphone and relay information to someone somewhere on the internet at their discretion, if said person/actors have 'root' access to the smart speaker. Which the Silicon Valley corporations which sell them do, of course and by extension the 'three letter' agencies.

You would think that would be self-evident, but the delusion is pretty strong with some. Same goes for Smartphones of course but the microphones on them aren't as good and they could be anywhere (in a bag, pocket, left in the spare room etc) whereas with a smart speaker you have a centrally placed device with amazing listening potential over probably the entire floor of the house. I can be in the back hall, off the kitchen and practically whisper the 'Alexa' wakeword any my old Echo Dot in the living room will activate.