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Apple (AAPL) put an end to the process of subcontractors listening to Siri recordings as part of its quality assessment process. Apple calls this process "human grading". In a statement on August 28, Apple apologized to the users of its Siri voice assistant after reports of its filing process raised issues of confidentiality.
A story of The Guardian On July 26, it was brought to light that Apple contractors frequently hear confidential and private information during Siri quality control. On August 1, TechCrunch announced that Apple was conducting a review and had suspended Siri's human ranking.
Violations of privacy in the industry
Apple is not the only technology company to be criticized for its privacy practices. In July, Google (GOOG) acknowledged that its language reviewers violated its security policies by disclosing confidential Dutch audio data. Google Assistant saved audio data on smartphones and Google Home. However, Google said its language experts rated only 0.2% of all audio snippets. In addition, reviews of language experts help the company to develop its voice technology. In one declarationDavid Monsees, Product Manager for Google Search, said the company was investigating the case.
On August 1, the Associated Press announced that Google had suspended the transcription of voice recordings on its Google assistant for at least three months in the European Union.
Amazon (AMZN) has also violated users' privacy by permitting a human review of the data recorded on Alexa. Alexa is the voice service of Amazon. To address privacy concerns, Amazon has suggested that users disable voice recording for manual reviews.
In July, the Federal Trade Commission fined the social media giant Facebook (FB) $ 5 billion for violating the privacy of its clients. As part of its settlement, the FTC ordered Facebook's board of directors to form an independent privacy committee. This committee would prevent the "absolute control" of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg from making decisions regarding the confidentiality of personal information.
Improved privacy for Apple Siri users
Apple is often presented as a company committed to protecting the privacy of users. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has talked a lot about government regulation of technology companies to protect the privacy of users. In a statement, Apple announced some measures to improve the protection of privacy of Siri.
The company said it did not use the Siri data stored on its servers to create marketing profiles. Nor does it sell Siri data to third parties. It uses the data to improve the functionality of Siri. Apple sometimes uses audio recordings as well as computer-generated user interaction transcripts to enhance Siri. Before suspending the process, he used less than 0.2% of audio from Siri's requests for human grading.
Apple intends to resume its ranking program this fall after the release of software updates. He will continue to review computer-generated transcripts to improve Siri. However, it will not keep audio recordings of Siri interactions. Users will also have the choice to allow or deny the use of their audio samples to enhance Siri. The company ensured that only Apple employees could listen to audio samples of Siri interactions if the user chose to participate.
Apple made sure that it would delete any records inadvertently made by Siri. Overall, Apple's efforts to improve its privacy policies are important to assure its customers that their personal data will only be used for illicit purposes.
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