A report today from The Guardian details claims from one of Apple’s contractors about the conversations that are heard as interactions with Siri are reviewed and analyzed. The report brings up privacy and transparency concerns and Apple has released a statement addressing the matter.
The Guardian’s source for this latest report is said to be a contractor that “grades” Siri. The whistleblower said that “Apple contractors regularly hear confidential medical information, drug deals, and recordings of couples having sex, as part of their job providing quality control” for Apple’s voice assistant.
The report mentions that Apple doesn’t clearly let consumers know that a small percentage of recordings are sent to contractors to improve Siri. Apple shared an official statement saying that less than 1% of Siri activations are analyzed to improve the service.
One of the bigger concerns from the Apple contractor was the data they claimed to be attached to the Siri recordings.
Apple notes in its Siri privacy policy that users can turn off features like Location Services for Siri or turn off Siri altogether.
Finally, the whistleblower said that contractors reviewing Siri interactions are only supposed to report technical problems with the service, and not anything based on the content they hear. But they had concerns about the contractors who might misuse the data.
Here’s Apple’s full privacy for Siri and Dictation:
