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Worried About Information Leaks, IBM Bans Siri
squiggleslash writes "CNN reports that IBM CEO Jeanette Horan has banned Siri, the iPhone voice recognition system. Why? According to Horan '(IBM) worries that the spoken queries might be stored somewhere.' Siri's backend is a set of Apple-owned servers in North Carolina, and all spoken queries are sent to those servers to be converted to text, parsed, and interpreted. While Siri wouldn't work unless that processing was done, the centralization and cloud based nature of Siri makes it an obvious security hole."
It's totally secure, it's only those dopes at Apple and their dumb cloud you have to worry about!
Jeanette Horan is the CIO, not the CEO.
Water is also wet. Must be a slow news day.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
I guess they're about to ban Google and Bing too?
By this logic google, bing, etc would be security holes.
And given that IBM is marketing Watson which is basically a super computer version of Siri... how does any of this make any sense?
I honestly don't understand the worry here.
When I looked at this, I thought the initial worry might be that the phone was listening all the time and could be parsing real time conversations through the apple servers all the time. That is TECHNICALLY possible. My understanding of siri is that it only listens when you cue it.
I'm just tying to piece together what situation or insight lead IBM to have this worry? Possibly someone pocket dialed Siri, a sensitive conversation fed into siri, and siri responded to the conversation in context from someone's pocket? That would be spooky. But I don't really see it as a security hole especially since it's hard to pocket dial iphones. The slider tends to make that rare.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Finally someone recognizes that the "cloud" is a danger to security. It's understandable that IBM would not want Apple being aware of what their employees are working on.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
> the centralization and cloud based nature of Siri makes it an obvious security hole
couldn't the same thing be said about any service 'in the cloud' by any manufacturer?
Hmmm, guess their iPhone users can't browse the internet since the only browser integrates google (and google stores every search). Wonder if they alo vet every app, block dns requests, and encrypt all phone traffic. :)
Sometimes well meaning corporate policies do really dumb things.
Post-Ban of Siri
IBM Employee: "Siri?"
Siri:"Yes?"
IBM Employee: "Remind me to file for the patent on the [insert technology here], tomorrow."
Siri: "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."
Methinks people may be sharing a little too much with Siri. She's a glorified search engine, not your personal confidant, dipshits!
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Wait, there are people who actually use Siri for a serious business-related use? They don't just ask it dumb questions in attempt to get silly answers?
"Siri, will you marry me?"
"Siri, where can I hide a dead body?"
"Siri, ***k you!"
"Siri, what is your favorite color?"
That's the only use for Siri that I've been able to (and many of my friends for that matter) find.
The iPhone/iPad's regular voice recognition for diction (the mic on the virtual keyboard) isn't Siri but it also uses the cloud. On top of that, many apps and browsers store data in the cloud and not just iOS phones; Android, RIM and others store data on servers in the cloud. Seems like a pointless ban to me.
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain
IBM? Worried Apple is listening?
What self-aggrandizing delusion, bordering on a satirical idea!
If I were Apple, knowing the source of a conversation from IBM? I'd purge the recording...
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
...like hotspacho.
I asked Siri if she was spying on me for Apple. She said that she's not good with food.
I don't understand why Siri has to use the cloud for speech to text. I had a samsung phone 6 years ago that could do this on the device itself with. I understand if the text part (after it's been converted) needs to be sent for analysis but the device certainly has enough processing speed to understand speech without a network...
I'm sure I'm missing something.
When I'm driving is when I really want to use Siri so I don't have to look at my phone and that it when it fails most (I'm not always on 3G areas).
Before everyone chimes in about how you might as well ban Google and Bing too, I think that there is a valid security concern for using Siri when you consider that many people use it for making appointments. Search history is much easier to obfuscate. I can understand if IBM doesn't want Apple to know who it is having "top secret" meetings with.
Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. - Will Rogers
Do the "editors" actually read the submissions before posting, or are they just slashcode administrators that happen to be in charge of the original website running the code?
I asked Siri if she was spying on me for Apple. She said that she's not good with food.
It seems the domain knowledge in Siri is somewhat uneven. According to reports, if you ask Siri for a blow job, it will recommend escorts close to you. However, if you ask Siri to eat your pussy, it will recommend some nearby pet stores...
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Siri is always listening - even when you don't want it to.
It listens to your calls. It listens to you and others talking in the background.
Siri hears all. Siri knows all.
Be afraid.
Why Siri? For publicity that's why.
If it was a real security reason then ALL smart phones will be banned. Because iphone, Android, Windows phones ALL have a voice cloud processed system availabe in them either stock like Siri or as an app on the other two.
Heck, I can do it with google by calling a phone number, so all phones have this security leak.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Your girlfriend tells me everything the two of you discuss.
The real reason Siri is banned is because Watson couldn't concentrate with her in the room [citation needed]
Whenever someone tries to show me how cool their Siri (or other similar Android app) voice recognition search is, I grab the phone and say, "Siri, how do you build a dirty bomb?" Then I explain that not only are all your Google searches logged, but so are your Siri queries because they have to go to the "cloud" to be processed. :)
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
Have gnu, will travel.
WITH THE NUMBER halt. Even Emacs parts 0f you are smells worse than a Are you GAY many of us are market. Therevfore
Until this, few phones sent your audio to a third party. The telco had to have the audio stream, but they don't store it. Telcos are regulated in this area. Even for wiretaps, US telcos don't store audio; they forward it in real time to law enforcement or security agencies.
Then Apple comes along. It starts storing all your audio and recognizing as much of it as possible, escaping liability through a vague EULA. That has to be a concern. How do you know when it's listening? And will you know when Apple changes the rules to something like "we collect all your voice input to improve the quality of voice recognition"?
This would be the same IBM that banned *all* cameras from its Greenock site - not even allowed to be left in your car while you're at work. The ban also included forward-looking CCTV and reversing cameras in lorries, like the dozens of lorries that came to site every day.
Then they bought all the managers smartphones, with cameras.
This is factually incorrect.
IBM enforces a profile on iOS devices that requires an 8-character password with a 15 minute lock timeout, along with the Lotus Traveller package for push email, calendar and contacts.
Siri is not permitted unless the phone is unlocked, and is therefore unavailable from the lock screen.
It's THAT simple. Really.
Remember back in the 90's when Furby first came out, the Federal Government banned Furbies from entering the building to protect state secrets?
Via Wiki: "There was a common misconception that they repeated words that were said around them. This belief most likely stemmed from the fact that it is possible to have the Furby say certain pre-programmed words or phrases more often by petting it whenever it said these words. As a result of this myth, several intelligence agencies banned them from their offices."
not gmail based account but
if I have a corporate email (active sync) on my droid or iPhone do either vendor scan that information? anyone know if the vendor policy specifically states that they do/do not. Not that they can't, of course they can.
almost missing my BB...
Not only that, but it provides different answers based on the sound
of your voice, e.g. ask it something in an authoritative manner and it will
lie (Apple is nobody's b***h). Try it!
They wrote Watson...
Siri: Virginia Tometty
then who the fuck is Jeanette Horan?
Siri: Ask the OP.
Aren't all text queries to, for example, Google, stored for all time on Google servers? Further to the point, isn't all "private" Gmail stored for all time on Google servers, just waiting for a casual switch to shunt them to FBI analysis rooms for a quick laugh? In fact, who is to say that all traffic over the net isn't at least abstracted and kept for all time? Maybe this is why NSA requires a declassification of any machine "touching" the Internet in any matter?
I suppose Siri could spill the beans about hol - er - ith kards in the haul-O-kaust to kill a certain race.
Forgive the grammar...it's the only way to make it past the slash censors to keep you all from knowing the truth. It's a bitch to have such a major advertiser with such an infamous past....
While you are at it, you will want to go ahead and ban all computers and laptops that have a webcam and or sound card. Those evil webcams and sound cards "may" be used to record confidential company information.
Luckily we can use Google, as with google search, nothing is ever sent to a remote data center owned by someone else and stored on spinning disk, all search happen locally on the computer or phone one does the search from, google just downloads all the web to the phone up front so that it can search on the local device, that way, they don't have to run any severs to back-end the expensive searching operation.
So they are worry about Siri, so I would venturer they have done the same for Bing, Google searches and anything else that people do on a daily basis. Does this yahoo think that if an employees ask for where is the closest McD that it will allow Apple to pick up on new things IBM is developing. I see paranoia but I am sure other paranoia endured individuals will see it as been just and the right course.
If corporate security is important, then banning Google and Bing is certainly merited. Only the sloppiest of security admins would justify a security policy on the grounds of "Oh but Google and Microsoft people won't look".
The fact that 99% of the world thinks that the cloud is safe doesn't make it so. Might as well believe in fairies.
More likely they just don't trust Nuance, which is the provider of the actual Speech Recognition in SIRI. Google lawsuit and Nuance and/or Scansoft for more details
Swype voice to text does the same.. how is this different?
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