Watching this Apple event tout how iPhones will soon be able to record ambient audio/conversations and transcribe "high level notes" for you.
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Watching this Apple event tout how iPhones will soon be able to record ambient audio/conversations and transcribe "high level notes" for you. It's billed as private and end-to-end encrypted, but I think the bigger harm is the normalization of always-listening devices. It's creepy and not normal.
@zackwhittaker
Growing up with Romanian family, I remember constantly hearing stories about everyone living in fear during communism knowing the walls were always bugged and every word was being taped by the secret police.Was nobody else paying attention to the creepy things that intelligence agencies (and now private companies) have been doing for the past 80 years? How does anyone hear this and think "yes, I'd love to have everything I do recorded KGB style, that's totally normal"
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@sylvie @zackwhittaker the feature is always recording, but it is likely implemented as a ringbuffer, so it can not buffer more than 30 seconds of audio.
for spying, it would have to either compress and send off the audio in packets (you see traffic and shrinking hard drive space) OR build the much smaller transcript and send that one along with regular traffic (tpu use, wastes significant battery when there is a lot of talking)
@lritter @sylvie @zackwhittaker How is that different from listening for a "hey siri" wake word?
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@zackwhittaker it’s also disappointing because it plays into existing conspiracy theories about “your phone is listening to you all the time”.
works for the surveillance state *shrug*
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@lritter @sylvie @zackwhittaker How is that different from listening for a "hey siri" wake word?
@prism @lritter @sylvie @zackwhittaker I was kind of wondering this... presumably that's handled locally whereas the "AI" stuff would go to the cloud. In any case I guess we can add Apple's BlueTooth manu ID to those FOSS apps designed to detect surveillance devices nearby.
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Watching this Apple event tout how iPhones will soon be able to record ambient audio/conversations and transcribe "high level notes" for you. It's billed as private and end-to-end encrypted, but I think the bigger harm is the normalization of always-listening devices. It's creepy and not normal.
@zackwhittaker
Especially given Apple's plans to go all-in on advertising. -
@lritter @sylvie @zackwhittaker How is that different from listening for a "hey siri" wake word?
@prism @sylvie @zackwhittaker waking up on "hey siri" costs a lot less in effort (though still not free) than running a full TTS system all the time (which they're not doing or else it wouldn't be limited to 15 seconds)
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@orange @zackwhittaker Think of it… a watch that records all sounds, glasses that record all you see, both concealed, working in tandem.
I can see some accessibility merit for it, but bottom-line: this stuff is dangerous and we shouldn't want it.
@mahryekuh @orange @zackwhittaker
Particularly worrisome given Apple's ties to Israel and obsequiousness to the Trump admin. -
Watching this Apple event tout how iPhones will soon be able to record ambient audio/conversations and transcribe "high level notes" for you. It's billed as private and end-to-end encrypted, but I think the bigger harm is the normalization of always-listening devices. It's creepy and not normal.
@zackwhittaker on a date: soooo, good to meet you, do we now have to frisk each other
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@zackwhittaker Here’s the support page with additional details.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/148354@j_f @zackwhittaker this was an extremely useful link with details that address almost every concern or question I've seen raised so far; thanks for sharing
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@prism @sylvie @zackwhittaker waking up on "hey siri" costs a lot less in effort (though still not free) than running a full TTS system all the time (which they're not doing or else it wouldn't be limited to 15 seconds)
@lritter @prism @sylvie @zackwhittaker
It was my understanding from the presentation that they do keep a recording of the last 15 seconds (in RAM, possibly a dedicated "secure exclave") and pipe that to an STT if triggered, with a pinky-promise to not store it persistently. -
Watching this Apple event tout how iPhones will soon be able to record ambient audio/conversations and transcribe "high level notes" for you. It's billed as private and end-to-end encrypted, but I think the bigger harm is the normalization of always-listening devices. It's creepy and not normal.
@zackwhittaker The encryption framing does a lot of heavy lifting. End-to-end encrypted always-listening is still always-listening. The question isn't whether Apple can see your conversations, it's whether having a microphone-active device in every room becomes the baseline expectation for a functioning phone. Once that's normal, every other manufacturer gets permission to follow.
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Watching this Apple event tout how iPhones will soon be able to record ambient audio/conversations and transcribe "high level notes" for you. It's billed as private and end-to-end encrypted, but I think the bigger harm is the normalization of always-listening devices. It's creepy and not normal.
@zackwhittaker they are losing the plot here. If you don’t understand something someone said, you politely ask them to repeat not check the notes on your watch. Their restaurant example was so contrived and bizarre.
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@lritter @prism @sylvie @zackwhittaker
It was my understanding from the presentation that they do keep a recording of the last 15 seconds (in RAM, possibly a dedicated "secure exclave") and pipe that to an STT if triggered, with a pinky-promise to not store it persistently.@nblr @prism @sylvie @zackwhittaker probably going to turn it on selectively when the NSA requests it
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Watching this Apple event tout how iPhones will soon be able to record ambient audio/conversations and transcribe "high level notes" for you. It's billed as private and end-to-end encrypted, but I think the bigger harm is the normalization of always-listening devices. It's creepy and not normal.
@zackwhittaker @techokami Where's warranty U.S. gov won't force Apple to send then audio itself and/or transcriptions, without properly disclosing them due to "Patriot Act"? -
@zackwhittaker @techokami Where's warranty U.S. gov won't force Apple to send then audio itself and/or transcriptions, without properly disclosing them due to "Patriot Act"?
@tapafon @zackwhittaker wait why did I get attached to this toot, all I did was boost a toot
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@nblr @prism @sylvie @zackwhittaker probably going to turn it on selectively when the NSA requests it
@lritter @nblr @prism @sylvie @zackwhittaker
Stasi 2.0 coming to a phone near you ...and actually its already been there for quite some time now.
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Watching this Apple event tout how iPhones will soon be able to record ambient audio/conversations and transcribe "high level notes" for you. It's billed as private and end-to-end encrypted, but I think the bigger harm is the normalization of always-listening devices. It's creepy and not normal.
@zackwhittaker It's also a double-edged sword. It makes phones an even juicier target for theft.
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Watching this Apple event tout how iPhones will soon be able to record ambient audio/conversations and transcribe "high level notes" for you. It's billed as private and end-to-end encrypted, but I think the bigger harm is the normalization of always-listening devices. It's creepy and not normal.
@zackwhittaker and it's literaly a felony in #Germany!
- Because I've yet to find any setting where everyone truly voluntarily consented to this shite!
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@zackwhittaker I was just about to toot about the weirdness of this feature. It has a summary "that let's you go back in time for 15 seconds", but also, somehow, "Privacy is protected at every step. These audio intelligence features do not create or store audio recordings."
These back to back statements are at odds with each other unless there's some slimey technicality legalese that allow them to be true like 'we write a transcript which technically isn't an audio recording'
@sylvie
> These audio intelligence features do not create or store audio recordingsThat's an old workaround to get that EU pesky laws to sit quiet in teh corner. Made long time ago by G and consortes.
The "while device microphone is always on, no sound recordings are ever uploaded to G servers". Because it would be illegal in the EU.
What they do instead is to use your device to make what mics hear analyzed then compressed into the 'semantic tokens'. They do not need their device to upload your climax sounds. They instead will receive timestamped few bytes that convey the meaning 'now userid is really fckd up'.
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@kleines_z @zackwhittaker @vikki LG wants to have a chat with you about how advanced microphones in Smart TVs can be (70 feet…) and how amazing even the simpler ambient mic works
@HeyRay @zackwhittaker @vikki
I'm so glad I have a dumb TV...Why the fuck should a TV have a microphone at all?!
