Apple Inc. said on Friday it suspended its global program where it analyzed recordings from users interacting with its voice assistant Siri, after some privacy concerns were raised about the program.
“While we conduct a thorough review, we are suspending Siri grading globally,” an Apple spokeswoman said in a statement, adding that in a future software update, users will be able to opt out of the program.
In an effort to perform quality checks and improve the voice assistant’s responses, contractors graded Siri’s answers to user queries, The Guardian reported. They also looked at whether the response was triggered accidentally, without a deliberate query from the user, the newspaper said.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s statement, verbatim: “We are committed to delivering a great Siri experience while protecting user privacy. While we conduct a thorough review, we are suspending Siri grading globally. Additionally, as part of a future software update, users will have the ability to choose to participate in grading.”
Apple’s stance on privacy should be sacrosanct, but not to the detriment of quality. Allowing users to opt-in to help improve Siri is a good solution.