Apple's high-end handheld device, the iPhone 4S, has gained a lot of fanatics among its users since 2011. The iPhone 4S highlighted the voice command named Siri as a personal assistant application that uses a natural language user interface to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of web services.
Siri's had stumbled into rough rides since its launch in October 4, 2011. When the phone was launched, the 4S was universally deemed to be the best iPhone yet, with Siri as one of its shining features. Hackers even jumped on the chance to bend Siri to their will. But since then, Siri excitement deminished, and disappointed fans have taken to the courts against her creator.
Apple employees are also upset that Siri has not yet matured into the digital assistant of our dreams. "People are embarrassed by Siri," a former Apple employee told Fortune. "Steve would have lost his mind over Siri." Siri send everything her "owner" says to her to a data center in Maiden, North Carolina, and reply with the searches, questions and bits of jokes.
With her controversies, IBM has banned Siri, making her an unwelcome guest in the office. IBM CIO Jeanette Horan told that her company has banned Siri outright because, according to MIT's Technology Review, "The company worries that the spoken queries might be stored somewhere."
Horan's worry is that in fact, Apple's iPhone Software License Agreement spells this out: "When you use Siri or Dictation, the things you say will be recorded and sent to Apple in order to convert what you say into text," Apple says. Siri collects a bunch of other information - names of people from the user's address book and other unspecified user data, all to help Siri do a better job. Apple never mentioned how long the data Siri have will be stored on the data center and who gets to look at it. Again, from the user agreement: "By using Siri or Dictation, you agree and consent to Apple's and its subsidiaries’ and agents' transmission, collection, maintenance, processing, and use of this information, including your voice input and user data, to provide and improve Siri, Dictation, and other Apple products and services."
Because some of the data that Siri collects can be very personal and should not be leaked out due to privacy concerns, the American Civil Liberties Union put out a warning about Siri just a couple of months ago.
Siri's lead developer Edward Wrenbeck says that privacy was always a big concern for Siri's developers. And for corporate users, there are even more potential pitfalls. But he agrees that many of the issues raised by Apple's Siri data handling are similar to those that other internet companies face.
Google and other giant tech companies also have been pressured by privacy groups over the way they store customer data and how they handle the massive database of user search data. Samsung on the other hand, the South Korean multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul also launched its first Siri competitor, the S-Voice on May 3rd, 2012, as a personal assistant that first appeared in its high-end smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S3. Samsung may also face the same pressure from the privacy groups about how this new feature is expected to respect confidential information.
Personal voice assistant has always been expected to be more robust, yet it is still in beta phases or not already capable on working at its full potential and has a lot more to learn. Voice assistant is a wonderful and useful service if the queries are correct and the user understand what the service can do. But many people just expect to see more than what is already given.