As human-device interactions shift gradually to voice, Google, Amazon and Apple are the top three conquering this market.
Previously,. both Google and Amazon admitted to have "listened" to users' interactions with their respective digital assistants, by allowing third-parties to also listen to them in order to improve the AI and experience.
This time, is Apple's turn to apologize.
The Cupertino-based company famous for its iPhones and expensive gadgets, as well as privacy, announced an update to its policy, with the most notable regarding Siri audio recordings.
According to the company, the policy promises users that only its in-house employees can ever listen to the recordings, and not third-parties. And that can only be done if users allowed them to do so.
Just like Google and Amazon that allowed third-parties to listen to users' audio recordings, Apple had also allowed its workers and its contractors to listen to what supposed to be personal conversations between users and Siri.
The company did this to improve the quality of Siri's responses, as well as to get feedback on the digital assistant's performance when answering to users' queries.
But this fact creeped people out, especially those who care about their privacy.
According to The Guardian's report, such recordings can include "countless instances of recordings featuring private discussions between doctors and patients, business deals, seemingly criminal dealings, sexual encounters and so on."
Receiving public outcry, Google and Amazon have suspended the use of third-parties to analyze voice recordings.
At the time, the two companies said that they are working on future software upgrades to obtain users’ informed consent before it resumed the practice.
Apple wrote on its Newsroom post:
"Siri uses as little data as possible to deliver an accurate result."
Apple here, came out first, as it detailed how the company is updating Siri to protect user privacy.
The updated policies require users to opt in to allow Apple to use recordings of their Siri request. Apple also said that it will immediately delete any recording in which the user triggered Siri accidentally.
"We hope that many people will choose to help Siri get better, knowing that Apple respects their data and has strong privacy controls in place. Those who choose to participate will be able to opt out at any time."