Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/07/29/apples-contractors-also-list.html
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I like the mic lock option, but the Amazon quoted $199 expert installation I feel I’d need to be safe makes it cost prohibitive. Have at it Apple Contractors!
“Hey Siri” should be off by default. I switched mine off long ago. Other than that this story doesn’t sound as scandalous as people would want it to be. It’s all part and parcel of training an always-on voice assistant. Tell this to the millions of Alexa owners, who voluntarily purchased an always-on microphone in their homes, and they wouldn’t bat an eyelid.
it might be handy if you had a widget on the screen cluster
to show it’s off maybe… 
PROTIP: If you occasionally use Siri but want to make absoutely sure it doesn’t overhear a particular conversation, place your phone screen-down. That disables the passive “hey siri” listening.
Or, turn off the Hey Siri feature so you have to press a button to activate it.
I’m not a Luddite, but I’m not an early adopter either. I still call people instead of text most of the time.
It still boggles my mind why anyone would want self-driving cars, cameras hooked up to the internet, and speakers that can listen to you unless you have a medical necessity for such items.
I work in tech and have to deal with security issues all the time. I don’t trust myself to write code without flaws and I certainly wouldn’t trust others to, either.
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Uh, what does this sentence mean?
"The only way to maybe percent a virtual assistance, along with the folks who have access to them on the back end of things, aren’t listening in on your life is to not use one. "
Strange sentence indeed, but not too strange that the intention is lost: TURN THE FUCKING THING OFF. Better yet, get out the sledge hammer and have some fun.
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Y’see, this could actually be useful. Suppose you’re having a chat with a friend and then you forget what you were talking about. Then you say to your friend, “What were we taking about?” And then this unfamiliar voice would say, “You were saying how your grandma always sends you pickled onions which you don’t eat.” Then you would say “Thanks, Whoever-you-are. Yea, so anyway,…”
/s
I’ve never used Siri because I work in tech.
My ex-wife is not technical but always tries to be trendy. She is convinced the future is voice assistance so during this time she has insisted on doing everything on her phone via voice (Text, email, appointments, google searches, E V E R Y T H I N G).
For the last 2 years, after separating, we continued to live in the same house. Putting these together meant I could hear her speaking every text message out loud, To her lawyer, to her family about me and best of all to the boyfriend I wasn’t supposed to know about. The look on her face every time I knew something “secret” was priceless and she never seemed to figure out how my magic powers worked.
The online security of the family is only as good as the weakest link. God help those with teenagers in the house.
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It’s not in real time, so the best you can hope for is a message along the lines of:
“I think you were right last Tuesday. Your spouse was being unfair.”
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