How can I set my privacy tighter with Siri and Dictation?

You must have missed some of the posts. IT IS NOT NEW TERMS. IT IS THE SAME TERMS THAT HAVE BEEN IN PLACE SINCE SIRI BECAME AVAILABLE AND IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN INCLUDED IN THE PRIVACY STATEMENT THAT YOU AGREED TO. The only difference now is that they remind you of what you agreed to when you tapped ACCEPT to the privacy terms.

I believe Brother Antonio intended to yell, which is why I yelled in return 😉

I faced this same issue today! (see links below to current Privacy Policy of Dictation and Siri). It quickly turned into a technical issue which is why I am posting it here because I was simply wanting to revert back to iOS7 and read the Privacy Policy from that iOS to see if it had the same "Privacy Disclaimer" that is being mentioned here (I will post it below). I was potentially going to stay with iOS7 and forget 8 for now!

Does anyone here know a way to revert back to iOS7.1 from iOS8?

Is anyone here using iOS7 and be willing to share the Privacy Policy language with us?

One of my big disappointments today with Apple is that after 2 hours on the phone I was not given any information on reverting the iOS OR given any way to find or read the previous Privacy Policy! I was led to have to fill out a written request here: http://www.apple.com/privacy/contact/

After all the time I spent on this today my belief and takeaway after reading this thread and after speaking to several Apple representatives today is that Apple has ALWAYS been collecting this personal data from our phones when we were using Dictation OR Siri. They are just NOW making that more known instead of, as one poster here suggested, that it was buried in the longer Privacy Policy text.

And, I believe that now this has come to the surface, it gives customers who have issue with this practice the opportunity to make your voice heard if you feel this crosses a line for you. I am certainly aware that any Speech Recognition technology is going to need to record and analyze what you speak to decipher that. AND I am also guessing there is a also way for that same technology to work WITHOUT Apple needing to harvest your "User Data". That is specifically the issue I have (read very clearly the Policy listed below). Why would Apple need to know who my Mom is or what songs I have on my phone to translate what I am speaking into text? That does not compute! ⚠

Here is what I did today and I recommend anyone who has this concern to do the same:

1) Submit a Privacy Complaint / Clarification Request: http://www.apple.com/privacy/contact/

2) Call The Apple Switchboard and ask to speak to Customer Relations!!! ~ 408-996-1010 ~ Call and ask for clarity on this Privacy Policy and if you are not happy with it, the only way Apple will know is if you let them know!

Brother Antonio wrote:

Does anyone here know a way to revert back to iOS7.1 from iOS8?

You cannot.

Sorry, me no mean to YELL! 😉 Just wanted to highlight what I thought was important. Will use bold next time.

That privacy statement says that Apple collects data about you so it can better respond to your requests to Siri. It also says that Apple does not use the data it collects for any other purpose. So I don't understand your concern, unless you believe Apple is lying about it. And if you believe that Apple lies you should not be using ANY Apple product.

It should be noted that Apple recently said that, unlike Google and Yahoo, Apple does not track any personal information about you for marketing purposes or to sell. With iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite Apple has also upped the quality of encryption on the phone and inflight data so that government agencies cannot access your data, and that it is not possible for Apple to respond to subpoenas for your data from law enforcement agencies. This policy of protecting customer data has been attacked by the director of the FBI and the director of the NSA. More than any other company in the world Apple has gone to extreme lengths to protect your data. If you are still concerned about the security of your data stop using your iPhone, and don't get ANY smart phone, because all of them are less secure than the iPhone. You should also not use ANY cell phone, because ALL cell phone calls are archived by government agencies. Of course, you shouldn't use landline phones either, for the same reason.

You DO understand that Siri is not on your phone; that Siri resides on Apple's servers, and the phone is only the input/output device. Everything you enter is sent to Apple's servers for translation and processing. It does this because the phone has nowhere near the knowledge base or processing power required to perform speech to text and text to speech processing. This has always been the case, and was carefully explained publicly when Siri first became available.

Brother Antonio wrote:

I HAVE THE SAME ISSUE! Here is what I did:

1) SUBMIT A PRIVACY COMPLAINT!!! http://www.apple.com/privacy/contact/

2) Call The Apple Switchboard and complain!!! Ask for CLARITY ON THESE NEW TERMS AND ASK FOR CHOICE TO NOT HAVE YOUR DATA COLLECTED IN THIS WAY! ~ 408-996-1010

I will have more to say about this in another part of this thread!

I have no interest in doing these things. I especially have no interest in harrasing some poor person whose job is to answer phones and who probably has not deeper insight into the legalities of Apple's privacy policy than I do.

Ok, a new development for me that is leading to a technical question.

I just turned off Siri. I then went to my notes App to see if the "Mic" icon still appeared, it did. When clicking it I got that same "Dictation" opt in again. This time I clicked to enable Dictation. I spoke a line and it worked. I then went back into the settings thinking I would now find Siri activated but it is not! So that means I opted in to let Dictation have access to things like my contacts and personal data without having Siri activated! That sure is confusing!

So, anyone know how to turn OFF dictation if I want to? That is something I could not find!

Thanks!

~ A ~

If you are using the speech-to-text functions on your phone, your data is being collected and stored.

As I said in an earlier post (which you apparently didn't bother to read) Siri is just an I/O front end to Apple's speech recognition engine. Dictation is another front end to the same speech recognition engine. The recognizer itself is not on the phone, it is on Apple servers (it's actually licensed from Nuance, the makers of the line of Dragon speech to text products). So ANY speech to text function of the phone records your voice, sends it to some server somewhere, and gets the translation back. Every speech recognition product on the market for smart phones works the same way. Google's, for example. Except Google does NOT promise not to use your speech for advertising the way Apple does.

The “Legal Notices” on an iPhone 6 with iOS 8.1 consists of 53,090 words that occupy 125 pages using the original formatting. I found no reference in the “Legal Notices” to Siri, Dictation or Nuance. I also found no mention in the “Legal Notices” of accessing user data or privacy other than to say that “Apple’s Privacy Policy can be found at: http://www.apple.com/privacy/.”

Apple’s current Privacy Policy updated September 17, 2014, actually found at http://www.apple.com/privacy/privacy-policy/, consists of 3,198 words that occupy 11 pages using the original formatting. I found no reference in the “Privacy Policy” to Siri, Dictation or Nuance. I also found no reference in the “Privacy Policy” to Apple accessing the information in user’s Contacts database.

While I appreciate Apple stating that my personal information “will not be shared with third parties for their marketing purposes,” the “Privacy Policy” contains some warnings if you read between the generalities and platitudes. For example, “Apple shares personal information with companies who provide services such as information processing … .” Apple also “utilize[s] third party storage.” Information given by Apple to these “third parties … is governed by [the third parties’] privacy practices.” Is that supposed to give the average user fair warning that Apple may be collecting the data in our Contacts database, using the products or services of third parties while processing such data for dictation, and possibly subjecting such data to the unknown privacy policies of third parties?

Even if Apple processes all data in-house, no company’s data security is perfect. It is not a matter of "trust" as some members suggest. I trusted Walmart, Home Depot, Target, … and APPLE. According to Fortune magazine, all of them have suffered from serious data security breaches. Home Depot recently notified customers that their names and email addresses were ACCIDENTALLY revealed; apparently Home Depot felt a legal or ethical obligation to give such notice to their customers. If Apple users use Siri or Dictation, do they likewise have a legal or ethical obligation to notify their customers that they KNOWINGLY disclosed such customer data to Apple without permission?

Finally, for the Apple apologists, I generally like Apple products, but I don't think that users are adequately warned by cryptic and inconspicuous post-purchase click-through-agreements. How was I supposed to know pre-purchase that my iPhone 6 would disclose all of my client contact information to Apple (and possible other service providers with their own privacy policies) when I used the Dictation function to simply fill in an email? I am not saying any other manufacturer has higher ambitions, I just expected more transparency from Apple.

Anyway, that leaves me still looking for a way to use Dictation or another product to fill in emails, notes, texts, etc. without risk to my customers, even if that means deactivating some of the more advanced Siri functions. It seems like a simple problem with a simple solution: give the user some flexibility. Frankly, I am stunned that such flexibility does not already exist, thus the reason for my first post. However, it sounds like I cannot accomplish my goal; at least not today. Maybe in iOS 8.2 ... In the meantime, Siri and Dictation are in the OFF mode. I cannot risk my clients' data simply to ask Siri the weather.

Thanks to all for explaining this mystery.

PS: I agree with Meg that harassing the Apple tech support folks is NOT the solution. But maybe Apple reads these forums and will take the hint.

jfadams wrote:

PS: I agree with Meg that harassing the Apple tech support folks is NOT the solution. But maybe Apple reads these forums and will take the hint.

They don't. You should submit your feedback directly:

http://www.apple.com/feedback

As Lawrence has pointed out, other, similar speech-to-text programs work essentially the same way. The processing is done on remote servers. You're data is on those servers. I'm not making any judgements on anyone's need for privacy. Just pointing out that you're going to have some difficulty finding something that meets both your privacy needs and your convenience needs.

Best of luck

Thank you so much for bring this up! I also feel like the option that I want for my privacy in Dictation isn't there. Dictation is one of my favorite abilities! Without it I don't want the phone. I have a Mac Book, but I think I am going to go return my new iPhone 6 plus. Sad!!! Apple - Please change this new and (NOT) improved feature! I am fine pressing "done" and if I wanted a "live" dictation I would just go find it in an app or other device.

Mama Ru wrote:

Thank you so much for bring this up! I also feel like the option that I want for my privacy in Dictation isn't there. Dictation is one of my favorite abilities! Without it I don't want the phone. I have a Mac Book, but I think I am going to go return my new iPhone 6 plus. Sad!!! Apple - Please change this new and (NOT) improved feature! I am fine pressing "done" and if I wanted a "live" dictation I would just go find it in an app or other device.

Apple has said that any data retained by Siri is owned by you and is only used to enhance your usage of voice recognition. It is not seen by Apple, and is not shared with anyone. If you do not believe Apple then you should definitely return any Apple products that you own. But what would you replace them with? An Android phone, that records everything that you do on it and sends it to Google? An Amazon phone, that is even more invasive? Microsoft is slightly less invasive than these (but more than Apple), but more easily hacked.

Since you are very concerned about privacy I am sure you never use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Snapchat or any other social media. All of them are intensively invasive, tracking everything that you do online, knowing all of your contacts and contacting them on your behalf plus everyone who you follow.

Since you are so concerned you should probably give up using any cell phone, because your cellular carrier knows where you are at all times, who you called (or texted) and when, who called you and when, and they share this information with the NSA, GHCQ in the UK, law enforcement, and use it for marketing purposes. Some carriers even tag all data that you send and receive with a unique identifier so they know everything you do online.

Apple has sold my nickname and email because I have received junk email addressed to my Siri nickname (which I only use for Siri...it's stupid like "sunflower"). Has this happened to anyone else? I think it is crazy right? Is this admitted in their privacy policy to anyone's knowledge?