IBM worries iPhone's Siri has loose lips

[sinkingfeeling]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/23/tech/mobile/ibm-siri-ban/index.html?hpt=hp_bn11

If you work for IBM, you can bring your iPhone to work, but forget about using the phone's voice-activated digital assistant. Siri isn't welcome on Big Blue's networks.

The reason? Siri ships everything you say to her to a big data center in Maiden, North Carolina. And the story of what really happens to all of your Siri-launched searches, e-mail messages and inappropriate jokes is a bit of a black box.

IBM CIO Jeanette Horan told MIT's Technology Review this week that her company has banned Siri outright because, according to the magazine, "The company worries that the spoken queries might be stored somewhere."

It turns out that Horan is right to worry. In fact, Apple's iPhone Software License Agreement spells this out: "When you use Siri or Dictation, the things you say will be recorded and sent to Apple in order to convert what you say into text," Apple says. Siri collects a bunch of other information -- names of people from your address book and other unspecified user data, all to help Siri do a better job.

[onehandle]

1. Search engines and many apps do much the same thing, but with what you type.

Everything you do on the Internet is stored somewhere.

Want total privacy? Disconnect.

[MineralMan]

2. The database used by Siri

is probably not one that is mined for anything. Siri is a server-side app. It doesn't store it's data on your iPhone, nor the software it uses to look up stuff. That's all on the server. If it were not, Siri would be worthless and very slow. Since it is a server-side app, it's still pretty much worthless, but fairly fast. Siri's best feature is the collection of smart-ass answers it offers when users ask smart-ass questions.

[Bake]

3. IBM must be afraid someone will tell Siri their secrets.

Pillow talk, you know?

Bake

[leftyohiolib]

4. this line in the story smells like bs"names of people from your address book and other unspecified

user data, all to help Siri do a better job."
see the spying we're doing is for your own good

[DCKit]

5. Oh, c'mon. Who doesn't have at least one backstabbing frenimie?

Anyone who doesn't think this is a bad thing doesn't understand the concept of data-mining.

[Fearless]

6. Apple not perfect? Never!