Apple Whistleblower on Audio Surveillance Related to Siri
May 22nd, 2020Via: The Register:
Dear Madam/Sir,
I am writing this statement to inform you of massive violation of the privacy of millions of citizens that I have witnessed in the course of my work assignment for Apple.
Between 13th May 2019 and 16th July 2019, I was hired by Globe Technical Services, one of Apple’s subcontractors, in Cork, Ireland. In this context, I was assigned to the Siri transcription project (called“Bulk Data”). The aim of this project was to listen to the recordings received from Apple devices in France and correct the transcriptions of Apple’s vocal assistant (Siri).
I listened to hundreds of recordings every day, from various Apple devices (e.g. iPhones, Apple Watches,or iPads). These recordings were often taken outside of any activation of Siri, e.g. in the context of an actual intention from the user to activate it for a request. These processings were made without users being aware of it, and were gathered into datasets to correct the transcription of the recording made by the device.
The recordings were not limited to the users of Apple devices, but also involved relatives, children,friends, colleagues, and whoever could be recorded by the device. The system recorded everything: names, addresses, messages, searches, arguments, background noises, films, and conversations. I heard people talking about their cancer, referring to dead relatives, religion, sexuality, pornography, politics,school, relationships, or drugs with no intention to activate Siri whatsoever.
Furthermore, other workers were employed on another project (called “Development data”). In the context of this project, words were tagged in the recordings to be linked to users’ data, such as their phone contacts, locations, or music. In other words, staff assigned to the project had access to personal user information, and used it to be able to link it to Siri commands. This means that users’ playlists,contact details, notes, calendars, photos, maps, etc. were gathered in huge data sets, ready to be exploited by Apple for other projects.
