Apple iphone 4s and siri, a 'personal assistant' that records everything!

Siri is apple's 'humble personal assistant' released on the new iphone 4s. With siri turned on you can ask questions, make appointments, dictate text and activate a load of commands with normal language. Siri can also answer you and keep you updated using normal speach.

Ok, let's do the ooh- aaah! great technology gasp, then move on, because we have a siri(ous) privacy debate coming on here.

Siri resides on your apple iphone, ONLY as an interface, the real recognition and answering technology is done on apple's cloud servers. You speak to seri, the message or command is relayed to the cloud and whatever response is required is sent back to the phone. It all appears very seamlessly, but there is a problem ...

Apple's privacy policy states in part the following.

'When you use Siri, the things you say will be recorded and sent to Apple to process your requests. Your device will also send Apple other information, such as your first name and nickname; the names, nicknames, and relationship with you (e.g., “my dad”) of your address book contacts; and song names in your collection (collectively, your “User Data”). All of this data is used to help Siri understand you better and recognize what you say. It is not linked to other data that Apple may have from your use of other Apple services. By using Siri, 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 and other Apple products and services. If you have Location Services turned on, the location of your iOS Device at the time you make a request will also be sent to Apple to help Siri improve the accuracy of its response to your location-based requests. You may disable the location-based functionality of Siri by going to the Location Services setting on your iOS Device and turning off the individual location setting for Siri. You can also turn off Siri altogether at any time. To do so, open Settings, tap General, tap Siri, and slide the Siri switch to “off”. You may also restrict the ability to use Siri under the Restrictions Setting.'

What that means is that this so called 'humble assistant' is not so personal at all. In fact it is an intelligent recording device that can reveal your whole life to apple's databases. Depending on how much you use siri it has the potential to tell exactly where you are, all your dictated thoughts, letters, private appointments, personal entertainment choices and behaviour patterns through the voice commands.

I guess millions of people will just walk into this one joyfully with their eyes shut, but think about this; Phone hacking just 'got legal' how's that, because we have given permission for our lives to be recorded and scrutinised by a huge corporation. and who knows where that could lead?

Masses of people will blindly follow technology to wherever it takes them - the blind following the blind. Modern tech used to be a very cool and useful tool - now it is becoming a dangerous tool in the hands of powerful people that only see us as a means to their perceived end. The concept of "the Borg" comes to mind when I think of where this is all going.

Google has already admitted that it wants to become a global information hub. If you have a gmail account, you may have noticed how it serves ads up in the sidebar according to subjects you are reading and writing about. Google claims it only parses your text for keywords, but again, we only have their word about this. Basically, we are allowing these technologies to hack into our personal lives in return for technology gismos and convenienece.

The best weapon is not power or agression, but leading your enemy into blind and joyful compliance. That's exactly what this type of insideous technology achieves.

I think that the connection has been lost between nature.
But unless a more esoteric future is found i am convinced the inevitable outcome of this "fetish" with technology is Bio-mechanical enhancement.
So basically a cyborg or Augmented person if you will.
It may sound repugnant to some people but unless the "soul" is unlocked then this is the way we will go.
Long gone are the days of carrying all you need in your head and heart to flourish everywhere. :(

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Posted by seantimberwolf

I think that the connection has been lost between nature.
But unless a more esoteric future is found i am convinced the inevitable outcome of this "fetish" with technology is Bio-mechanical enhancement.
So basically a cyborg or Augmented person if you will.
It may sound repugnant to some people but unless the "soul" is unlocked then this is the way we will go.
Long gone are the days of carrying all you need in your head and heart to flourish everywhere. :(

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Good point seantimberwolf. I think there is still a choice wether we 'fall' for these technologies or not. I must admit when I first saw siri, I was impressed. But then I looked below the surface of this technology and realised how potentially sinister it could be. We need to all dig a little deeper and be less superficial, then we can make better informed choices. Most people probably will be happy to blindly accept these technologies and that indeed will lead to a cyber culture.

... and one day we will be told "here is your new tech upgrade, resistance is futile."

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Posted by HORIZONS

... and one day we will be told "here is your new tech upgrade, resistance is futile."

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There is the problem. Right now we have a choice, but if we allow this creeping takover, one day there will be no choice. ''resistance is futile'' This is how the 'enemy' takes the land... one tiny step at a time, so we don't really care or even notice. It's like cancer, you may not even know you have it, until it's too late.

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Posted by 1159

Good point seantimberwolf. I think there is still a choice wether we 'fall' for these technologies or not. I must admit when I first saw siri, I was impressed. But then I looked below the surface of this technology and realised how potentially sinister it could be. We need to all dig a little deeper and be less superficial, then we can make better informed choices. Most people probably will be happy to blindly accept these technologies and that indeed will lead to a cyber culture.

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I agree, i was also impressed at first, my friend was telling me of the new iPhone the other day.
But like you i dug a little deeper, i think i am a very old soul if you will and i love simplicity in all its forms.
But i think the biggest danger of this cyber culture is in fact the finality that is often over looked,
Which is the social division of the "cyborgs" and "humans".
exactly the same has happened in every case of difference since time begun.
The haves and have-nots will always clash.
And in this case of human enhancement it will be the worst, its a frightening idea but a real one, people with ability well beyond the norm wanting more maybe even a complete integration into technology, then the people of soul and humanists will kick up, and the outcome may even lead to civil unrest if no cap is put on the augmentation of humans.
It sounds like something we all seen in a film or read in a book, but fact is, its close and it could and may happen.
the way people love technology and crave it, i would say it is a dead cert.

Well, you should also look to the positive side of Siri.

For the first time, visually impaired persons can send emails and make phone calls controlled by voice, without having to speak like a robot, to make themselves understood by a computer system.

Siri opens a brand new world of possibilities to make visually or physically impaired persons communicate better and have a better life quality.

Imagine when Siri (or similar program) reaches regular computers, which I believe will be soon. A blind person, or a quadriplegic could finally navigate trough the web easily. Example:

-Siri, go to Project Avalon home page.
-Read the new posts.
-Post reply to this post.

It will be wonderful!

Siri is the first voice interpretation with an AI that actually works pretty well, and will work even better in a couple of years.

I bet other similar programs will be here soon, without the need to store or stream data to the cloud as well.

Cheers,

Raf.

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Posted by RMorgan

Well, you should also look to the positive side of Siri.

For the first time, visually impaired persons can send emails and make phone calls controlled by voice, without having to speak like a robot, to make themselves understood by a computer system.

Siri opens a brand new world of possibilities to make visually or physically impaired persons communicate better and have a better life quality.

Imagine when Siri reaches regular computers, which I believe will be soon. A blind person, or a quadriplegic could finally navigate trough the web easily. Example:

-Siri, go to Project Avalon home page.
-Read the new posts.
-Post reply to this post.

It will be wonderful!

Siri is the first voice interpretation with an AI that actually works pretty well, and will work even better in a couple of years.

Cheers,

Raf.

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I can see your point mate, but i do believe that the negatives outweigh the positives, maybe they will let us simple ones have an area to live away from it all lol, yeah right like that would happen :)

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Posted by seantimberwolf

I can see your point mate, but i do believe that the negatives outweigh the positives, maybe they will let us simple ones have an area to live away from it all lol, yeah right like that would happen :)

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Personally, I don´t really care about Siri. I don´t even have an iPhone and I wont buy one. When I buy a cell phone, I always go to the cheapest and most simple.

I agree with you. Privacy is a problem these days, but it´s relatively simple to avoid the problems mentioned above on this thread. Just stay away from social networks, cloud computing and everything else that makes you think it´s good to make your life an open book for anyone to read.

Cloud computer is dangerous indeed. My advice is to stay away for it and use it only if you need it.

Anyway, if you don´t like Siri or iCloud, just disable them on your iPhone, if you have one. Or do like me and don´t even buy these products.

OK, the way I see it (talking about impaired sight - unwanted analogy, lol), is that Siri would be fantastic if it were served by our own server, not from cloud computing centralised somewhere were we do not know who has access.

Thanks for the information: I just broke the displayscreen of my iphone by dropping the poor thing (yes, I was that attached to it :o) and had to replace it by its white counterpart (they has no more black in the store) all brand new with Siri. Tought is was cool, but now I see I will have limited usage of it. I never got to use voice recognition in outside systems yet, did not want my voice in major databanks like Bell Canada. I used it only with my own equipment (i.e. computer). I may as well remain the same.

And yes the phone company got me hooked for another 3 years contract so that I would not pay too much money for the phone. I truly love Iphone :phone::suspicious:

Cloud computing is simply an amalgamation of servers which distribute the data to serve it most efficiently. The real issue, as I see it is that we are allowing our personal information to be stored on someone elses databases. That means they have access to it I run my own websites which means I have access to the source code of everything that happens on it.

Here is something you may not be aware of, so take note. If I ran a forum with private messaging like this camelot forum, I could easily interrogate my database and read anyones private messages. Unless the data is encrypted, it is NOT totally private. That is true of any forum, or private messaging sevice. Don't be fooled by the nice friendly user experience. Underneath the surface, everything digital is easily visible to those with skill and lack of scruples.

It's escatly the same with unencrypted email. Anything can be intercepted and analysed by digital spying.

My point with siri is that we now have a fantastic piece of software that pushes the invasion of privacy into an acceptable format. Hacking by consent. I'll guarantee within a few months, there will be a claim against apple that some piece of data has leaked through siri and causes a rumpus.

Yeah. @ RMorgan
You raise a good point about assisting disabled people, but in time we will also have a brain reader that can literally read our thoughts and print them out. My feeling is, if we must use this technology, we must use it with great caution, lest it turn against us.

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Posted by Flash

OK, the way I see it (talking about impaired sight - unwanted analogy, lol), is that Siri would be fantastic if it were served by our own server, not from cloud computing centralised somewhere were we do not know who has access.

Thanks for the information: I just broke the displayscreen of my iphone by dropping the poor thing (yes, I was that attached to it :o) and had to replace it by its white counterpart (they has no more black in the store) all brand new with Siri. Tought is was cool, but now I see I will have limited usage of it. I never got to use voice recognition in outside systems yet, did not want my voice in major databanks like Bell Canada. I used it only with my own equipment (i.e. computer). I may as well remain the same.

And yes the phone company got me hooked for another 3 years contract so that I would not pay too much money for the phone. I truly love Iphone :phone::suspicious:

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Hi Flash, thanks for your comment, tho sorry you crashed your old phone! I think if we use siri for fairly innocent tasks, it won't cause us too much problem on a personal level. If I was an important government official I would not use it, in case something got leaked. For most of us, the data we transfer will probably be amalgamated into some huge anonymous pool of human behavour and interests. It's one step closer to losing privacy. Regarding the server comment: It would be nice to have a private server, but just how private is it? In the US, there are laws that allow government agencies to get access to ALL server data, if they deem this necessary in the interestst of military and public security. I have servers in the UK and US and I have to be very careful about hosting UK sites on US servers for this reason.

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Posted by 1159

Siri is apple's 'humble personal assistant' released on the new iphone 4s. With siri turned on you can ask questions, make appointments, dictate text and activate a load of commands with normal language. Siri can also answer you and keep you updated using normal speach.
<snip>
What that means is that this so called 'humble assistant' is not so personal at all. In fact it is an intelligent recording device that can reveal your whole life to apple's databases. Depending on how much you use siri it has the potential to tell exactly where you are, all your dictated thoughts, letters, private appointments, personal entertainment choices and behaviour patterns through the voice commands.
<snip>
Phone hacking just 'got legal' how's that, because we have given permission for our lives to be recorded and scrutinised by a huge corporation. and who knows where that could lead?

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Hmmm, that explain's why Rupert Murdoch was recently mentioning "his good friend" Steve Jobs.
Something smells fishy here, both men are/were Pisces.

FYI 'phone hacking' got legal at the moment Apple (and Amazon as well) pulled legally purchased and paid-for content from peoples' devices by request from publishers, who all of a sudden felt that particular book shouldn't be sold any more. It's just as if you walk in the Borders, purchase your copy of Orwell's 1984 published by Penguin, and a week later when you come back from work, you find a note on your fridge saying "We were here today to pick up the book you bought yesterday, as the publisher decided they no longer want you to have it. The money is under the cookie jar. Have a nice day, we are looking forward to your further purchases. Sincerely yours, Borders." I remember it caused quite a lot of outrage one or two years ago, but obviously not enough for people to remember it.
The paradigms like privacy or ownership of purchased property have been broken for quite a while now, only it was never announced, while some have been a smokescreen from day one.

I went to the park today with the kiddies on a wonderful Sunday, and what i noticed was horrendous. Almost Everyone uses their cel phones and texting devices whilst enjoying the great outdoors , Doesn't anybody read a book or look at nature anymore?. Real signs of Zombieism. Wake up people, wake up. Your gonna miss the portal train to ascension.

The Mac world is simply the best (for the tech lover like me), but years and years ago, I started to perceive the subtle small gestures of the Apple to limit, control and poses you when you are their customer. So many years of working with Mac allows me to configure it as I wish, but the NWO influence was every year more visible. Now with a iCloud (disabled in my Mac) and Siri and what will come, the control dome is more and more closing above us. There is always Freenet, but it is demanding thing to deal with. Not mentioning Siri and iCloud, we have to give away our data on daily basis, just to be able to function on a web.

That's 100% correct vibrations, we can't access the information on the internet without giving personal information away for it, and it increases ever year.

The database of personal information that is being held would be massive!

PVM

As I see it, we all trade a certain amont of privacy for convenience and cool features. Nothing ever seems to go wrong for most of us, so we become more confident that the 'big brother' is not interested in our tiny lives. Yes, marketing companies may trade our email addresses and buying habits that ecourages more junk mail and targetted advertising. But no big deal...

Thing is, we only experience the tip of the intrusion ice-berg, but what happens if the brown stuff hits the spinning device Big time! Did I mention the word 'BOMB' when I emailed my friend in Northern Ireland in 1998? And if so, can that be queried through those vast black ops computers and therefore put me on a suspect list?

Those are the kind of scenarios that concern me most. The Jews were persecuted simply because of their race. The time may come when we may be persecuted because of our beliefs and convictions.

and they have all the eveidence they need for 'thought-crime'