Apple apologizes for contractors’ ability to listen to Siri recordings

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple is apologizing for allowing outsiders to listen to snippets of people’s recorded conversations with its digital assistant Siri, a practice that undermined its attempts to position itself as a trusted steward of privacy.

Apple, as part of the apology posted Wednesday, reiterated an earlier pledge to stop keeping audio recorded through Siri unless consumers give their permission.

When permission is granted, Apple said only its own employees will be allowed to review audio to help improve the service. Previously, the company hired contractors to listen to some recordings.

“We realize we haven’t been fully living up to our high ideals, and for that we apologize,” Apple conceded.

It’s not clear how Apple will seek permission, though in the past, Apple has typically requested permissions through prompts during software update installations.

In recent months, Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple have acknowledged that people have been reviewing users’ interactions with artificial intelligence assistants in order to improve the services. But users aren’t typically aware that humans and not just computers are reviewing audio.

The use of humans to listen to recordings is troubling to privacy experts because it increases the chances that an employee or contractor could leak details of what is being said.

Apple said it will still use computer-generated transcripts to improve services, even if a user hasn’t explicitly granted permission, or opted in.

Unlike Facebook, Google and Amazon, which track what people are doing and where they are going to sell ads and merchandise, Apple has emphasized that it has no interest in peering into its customers’ lives.

MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/AP 2018 Apple, which apologized, is changing the way humans review recordings made through its digital assistant Siri.