Apple Apologizes After Whistleblower Reports Siri Routinely Records Private Interactions

On Wednesday, Apple issued an apology to Siri users for employing third-party contractors to listen to audio recordings picked up as ‘background noise’ — including recordings of people having sex, making drug deals, and discussing confidential medical information.

According to The Guardian, a whistleblower who works for Apple explained, “There have been countless instances of recordings featuring private discussions between doctors and patients, business deals, seemingly criminal dealings, sexual encounters and so on. These recordings are accompanied by user data showing location, contact details, and app data.”

Some of the recordings are passed on to third-party contractors who review them for Apple’s “Siri grading program.” Apple apologized for not “fully living up to our high ideals” and temporarily halted the Siri grading program. “We plan to resume later this fall when software updates are released to our users,” they wrote, adding that in the future users will be able to opt in to the program and that “only Apple employees will be allowed to listen to audio samples of the Siri interactions.” . . .

And they said, yesterday, ‘You know, we realize that we haven’t been fully living up to our high ideals and we apologize.’ Oh, really? … You didn’t realize you were violating your ‘high ideals’ when you were listening to people?” (Read more from “Apple Apologizes After Whistleblower Reports Siri Routinely Records Private Interactions” HERE)

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