Stopping Apple from listening to Siri, stopping Google from listening to Google Assistant, stopping Amazon from listening to Alexa, stopping Google from collecting data from android devices - these sort of articles and arguments seem flawed right at the title.
Those companies have created those devices to listen to you, and your surrounding, to understand you better and serve you the right product or service or their ads. You can not have both smooth service and complete privacy if the data is restricted, as the system will not get to learn you.
Game theory suggests that I want to turn off my recordings and hope that most of you do not. That way I benefit from the improvements that result from you giving up your privacy, while retaining my own.
If I pay $100 for a product to listen to my vocal queries and respond, and you listen to improve the product's ability to respond, fine.
If you use it to track subsonic audio watermarks to detect what advertisements I see on my TV or find out what products and services I'm interested in, screw off.
Every engineer who pushes code to synergize advertisement business with their consumer audio product business should be ashamed of themselves. It's unethical and should be illegal.
I want the products I buy to do what I think they do. Not hide tracking used to improve other products from the business that I don't pay for.
"Google .. serve you the right product or service"
No way. Google is not a philanthropy club, neither Amazon nor Apple. They do it to serve THEIR own interests, which might coincide with yours, but not necessarily so. If you want examples, think of Google's tech support, or how Google and Facebook sell your personal information to third parties.
> You can not have both smooth service and complete privacy if the data is restricted, as the system will not get to learn you.
Sure you can, as long as you control the system. There is nothing preventing us from realizing the old dream of having AIs dedicated to working for us, the users, not some corporation.
It just so happens that the the current favorite business model of big tech is serving us ads, but does this business model serve us? I don't think so.
The device was probably not created for that purpose aside from alexa/echo. As long as I can deactivate the software in question on those devices, I have not problem with it. But default off is required, and that is why the title can indeed make sense.
Spot on. I am happy that users are learning about what it takes to improve these services. If they prefer not to have their voice contribute to those improvements, I recommend they turn the services off altogether.
That would be a fine argument if there was an easy way to just opt-out and not use said services. Hacking your way around services doesn't qualify as easy.
Device profiles are the superset. It allows a wide range of features and functions.
Mobile device management uses a subset of what device profiles allow for, along with additional external tooling.
They're similar, but the thread you linked to is about MDM, not device profiles in general.
Deploying a device profile is akin to accepting a self signed certificate. When it's of your own generation, it's probably fine, if someone else has done it, you should question what's happening and whether or not it's right for you to accept it or not.
INSTRUCTIONS—For those who wish to do this on their own without downloading and installing a third-party's profile to their device(s) (and have a Mac):
1. Download Apple Configurator 2 from the Mac App Store.
2. Open the app, plug in your iOS device, and click on it to activate working on it.
3. Command+N to create a new Profile.
4. Under General, fill out the mandatory info (only name is required).
5. Click Restrictions, then click Configure. Un-check the 10th top-level checkbox that says "Allow server-side logging of Siri commands". Take a look at other things you'd like to control.
6. Command+S to save the profile. Close the window.
7. Click on Profiles in left sidebar. Click Add Profiles. Select the profile you just saved. Ensure your device is unlocked, and it will be added to your device.
8. Go into Settings app on your device. There will be an entry at the top that says "Profile Downloaded". Tap into that and select to install the profile.
If you go to the github [0] linked in the article, it tells you how to create your own using Apple's Configurator application [1]. In the "restrictions" section, uncheck "Allow server-side logging of Siri commands". You can also preview the raw XML of the config profile on github without downloading the file [2].
How about a better question -- if you turn off everything Siri in the settings, are there circumstances in which an iPhone will still send audio to their servers?
This to me would be the only reasonable way of stopping Apple from listening in, while still using an iPhone.
Not Apple, but I'm pretty happy with the Amazon firestick. It only listens when you press the button on the remote. Seems acceptable if that's all Amazon is logging.
As I understand it, Apple devices don't start sending audio data to Apple until you say "Hey Siri" (which is interpreted on the device). It may not be as explicit as pushing a button, but it seems close.
Siri responded with a web search that resulted in some articles about how to accomplish what you ask about. I think it included this thread. I didn't bother to visit the resulting pages.
Another option is of course to simply not use an iOS device.
Having to download some third-party thing to disable it, really shouldn't be necessary. There should be a simple setting in iOS to turn Siri's listening on or off.
You don't need a some third-party thing, you can create the profile yourself using the Apple Configurator. Agree that this should be an easily accessible system setting like OP suggests.
That already exists. There are a class of users who want to use Siri and “turn off logging of server-side Siri commands.” That is what the iOS profile does.
[+] [-] bluesign|6 years ago|reply
2019-05-03 Removed allowSiriServerLogging from the Restrictions Payload.
[0] https://developer.apple.com/business/documentation/Configura...
[+] [-] givinguflac|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] strooper|6 years ago|reply
Those companies have created those devices to listen to you, and your surrounding, to understand you better and serve you the right product or service or their ads. You can not have both smooth service and complete privacy if the data is restricted, as the system will not get to learn you.
[+] [-] pwinnski|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwaway542134|6 years ago|reply
If you use it to track subsonic audio watermarks to detect what advertisements I see on my TV or find out what products and services I'm interested in, screw off.
Every engineer who pushes code to synergize advertisement business with their consumer audio product business should be ashamed of themselves. It's unethical and should be illegal.
I want the products I buy to do what I think they do. Not hide tracking used to improve other products from the business that I don't pay for.
[+] [-] saagarjha|6 years ago|reply
On-device learning is a thing.
[+] [-] collyw|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mike_ivanov|6 years ago|reply
No way. Google is not a philanthropy club, neither Amazon nor Apple. They do it to serve THEIR own interests, which might coincide with yours, but not necessarily so. If you want examples, think of Google's tech support, or how Google and Facebook sell your personal information to third parties.
[+] [-] TelmoMenezes|6 years ago|reply
Sure you can, as long as you control the system. There is nothing preventing us from realizing the old dream of having AIs dedicated to working for us, the users, not some corporation.
It just so happens that the the current favorite business model of big tech is serving us ads, but does this business model serve us? I don't think so.
[+] [-] raxxorrax|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] intopieces|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] elorant|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cj|6 years ago|reply
There was just an article last week on the front page describing how installing device profiles is unacceptable: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20514833
[+] [-] oarsinsync|6 years ago|reply
Mobile device management uses a subset of what device profiles allow for, along with additional external tooling.
They're similar, but the thread you linked to is about MDM, not device profiles in general.
Deploying a device profile is akin to accepting a self signed certificate. When it's of your own generation, it's probably fine, if someone else has done it, you should question what's happening and whether or not it's right for you to accept it or not.
[+] [-] bobwaycott|6 years ago|reply
1. Download Apple Configurator 2 from the Mac App Store.
2. Open the app, plug in your iOS device, and click on it to activate working on it.
3. Command+N to create a new Profile.
4. Under General, fill out the mandatory info (only name is required).
5. Click Restrictions, then click Configure. Un-check the 10th top-level checkbox that says "Allow server-side logging of Siri commands". Take a look at other things you'd like to control.
6. Command+S to save the profile. Close the window.
7. Click on Profiles in left sidebar. Click Add Profiles. Select the profile you just saved. Ensure your device is unlocked, and it will be added to your device.
8. Go into Settings app on your device. There will be an entry at the top that says "Profile Downloaded". Tap into that and select to install the profile.
[+] [-] hprotagonist|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ihuman|6 years ago|reply
[0] https://github.com/jankais3r/Siri-NoLoggingPLS
[1] https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jankais3r/Siri-NoLoggingPL...
[2] https://github.com/jankais3r/Siri-NoLoggingPLS/blob/master/P...
[+] [-] tga|6 years ago|reply
This to me would be the only reasonable way of stopping Apple from listening in, while still using an iPhone.
[+] [-] elagost|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] taqcp|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ropiwqefjnpoa|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dangoor|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Anechoic|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pintxo|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jerkstate|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bobwaycott|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jraph|6 years ago|reply
"Hey Siri!… Siri?!"
P.S. If someone out there has an Apple device, I'm interested in knowing what the actual response to this request is.
[+] [-] cardiffspaceman|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mcv|6 years ago|reply
Having to download some third-party thing to disable it, really shouldn't be necessary. There should be a simple setting in iOS to turn Siri's listening on or off.
[+] [-] petard|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adolph|6 years ago|reply