Apple suspends program that used recordings of customers' sexcapades and medical secrets

Last week, we told you that Apple, like Google and Amazon, has a third party firm listening to clips recorded by its virtual digital assistant. Apple and the other companies say that this is necessary in order to improve the user experience of their AI-driven helpers. One whistleblower who works for the contractor employed by Apple related how private medical information is sometimes heard on these Siri snippets and occasionally the contractors are titillated by the sounds of two (or more) people engaging in sexual activity. In such situations, Siri is activated by mistake. The whistleblower pointed out that sometimes the sound of a zipper will act like the wake word, which might explain the recordings of users' intimate moments.

This all seemed to contradict Apple's claims about how the company protects the privacy of iPhone users. In fact, you might recall that back when this year was just five days old, Apple paid for a giant billboard that looked out over the streets of Las Vegas in the vicinity of the Las Vegas Convention Center. At the time, the venue was hosting the Consumer Electronics Show and Apple was hoping to attract the attention of those passing by on the way to the event. The sign, borrowing from the city's own iconic promotional slogan, read "What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone." Except that turned out not to be entirely true.

Well, it seems that the blowback from the report about consultants listening to snippets of recordings from Siri touched a raw nerve at Apple. Reuters reports that this morning, Apple has decided to suspend the global program that graded Siri's performance. Apple has said that one of the reasons why these recordings were being looked at was to see what sounds accidentally awaken the virtual digital assistant. The company previously stated that "A small portion of Siri requests are analyzed to improve Siri and dictation. User requests are not associated with the user’s Apple ID. Siri responses are analyzed in secure facilities and all reviewers are under the obligation to adhere to Apple’s strict confidentiality requirements."