Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/07/10/creepytech.html
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Well you have to train the system some how when it’s expected to work across a wide range of accents and speech patterns. At some point people need to recognize that these devices are always listen (that’s the only way they can respond to their name being called) and sending that info back to the cloud.
I wouldn’t be surprise if Siri and Cortana do the same thing.
I’ll never buy one and I don’t use Siri on my iPhone cause I figure that is what has to happen to make them work as well as they do.
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The reason complaints about the GDPR are made to Ireland is not that simple. It’s because as part of the actual GDPR law they selected one government agency to be responsible for enforcement - and Ireland’s privacy agency was the one selected. It seems it’s not uncommon in the EU to do this. It does not prevent nationsl governments from enforcing the GDPR but it does mean general complaints and proactive enforcement are Ireland’s responsibility.
Obviously, knowing how cosy Ireland is with the tech giants, one should wonder if it’s a coincidence. It seems that Ireland’s support for the GDPR was negotiated with this condition - that their understaffed, underfunded privacy regulator would be responsible for enforcement. I am convinced tech company lobbyists pushed for this also, knowing what would happen - that essentially no enforcement would take place from them.
So essentially the GDPR is great on paper, but with Ireland being responsible for its enforcement it is essentially toothless.
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Given the apple fanboi BS that usually accompanies such reports (“LOLZ that’s why I use teh iPhone” etc.) now would be a really good time for a clarifying statement on whether Siri does the same. (Not bothered about Cortana because I think there’s only about 3 people globally who use it).
Even worse - it will be vigorously enforced against smaller companies by local governments, but not enforced against multinational corporations, thus entrenching the monopolies and creating barriers to entry.
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Everything I’ve read seems to say this is why Apple is behind Google and Amazon in voice recognition. Because they don’t take these liberties with the data.
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