
Siri is always listening. Are you OK with that? - 1337biz
http://uk.businessinsider.com/siri-new-always-on-feature-has-privacy-implications-2015-9
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ChuckMcM
Generally Siri and Google's service are pretty good about asking for consent
so by definition if the feature is on you must be OK with that. Of course are
you OK with someone else's device in your proximity listening to everything
you say? That is a stickier problem.

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natch
Misleading title. You need to turn the feature on, and it asks you if you're
OK with that.

And it only listens when the device is connected to power, and you've opted
in.

In the next version, if it listens even when the device is not connected to
power, you'll still have to opt in. So this entire article is sort of a duh.

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hutattedonmyarm
As long as it doesn't send anything to the servers before I say "Hi Siri" I'm
fine

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comex
I find the idea of remotely turning an iPhone into a bug quite scary, and
wonder when we'll first see a public attack of this nature.

But this feature does literally nothing to aid such an attack∗; it just makes
the long-existing threat more obvious. As implemented, it doesn't send data to
the server until the trigger phrase is detected, at which point it plays a
conspicuous tone. To make it do more than that, you need to hack or modify the
firmware, which would also let you implement the same thing on an older
iPhone.

(I'd like to see an assistant that doesn't require data to be sent in the
first place, but that's basically a separate issue.)

∗ okay, whatever hardware performs the trigger phrase detection with low power
consumption could probably be reprogrammed by a hacked firmware to detect some
other phrase, making a bug slightly more powerful... but that's pretty minor.

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pacala
It's highly likely that powerful interests [governments and big tech] can
already silently listen on mobile phones and have a database of voice
signatures so they know exactly who's talking and what. That being said, the
Panopticon is going nuts. I want a device with a pluggable mic, so I can buy /
build my own mic with a physical on/off switch. Fuck off, peepers.

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walterbell
How about aftermarket removal of all microphones from the iPhone, then using a
headset with mike when needed?

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hughw
A microphone is one of the defining features of a telephone.

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detaro
Many people don't really use their smartphones as telephones.

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opless
So get a LTE tablet then.

But my annoyance with tablets with a mobile connection don't have access to
text messages.

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toomuchtodo
On an iPad, you can get iMessages, and Hangouts on Android and iOS. Its not
perfect of course, but close enough.

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soylentcola
Sure, but without cell service (as in a phone number instead of just data),
aren't those just closed IM services?

Don't get me wrong, I use Hangouts over SMS/MMS whenever possible but while I
can reach anyone on Hangouts if they have it installed, I can't install
iMessage since it only works on Apple devices. As such, I have to fall back to
SMS to reach people on iPhones who haven't or won't install Hangouts.

As much as I prefer IM over texting for the general features and speed, it's
still useful as a fallback option if only because the various IM services
aren't interoperable.

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toomuchtodo
Hangouts will use your Google Voice number to SMS people.

