iMac Pro to feature always-on 'Hey Siri' voice commands

[HEXUS]

Built-in A10 Fusion chip will enable this and enhanced computer security.

Read more.

[Glock24]

OK, now besides having Intel's ME, you have another potential spy system in place. Nice.

[Strawb77]

quite.

[ETR316]

same idea really as Cortana, most bitched about it. I wonder if the apple worshipers will bitch the same.

[DDY]

I'd imagine most expensive Mac owners would have Siri on their Iphones anyway... Can't lose your privacy if you've lost it already, amirite?

[peterb]

It’s not especially Siri/Cortana/Alexa/ and so on are the risk, they are just another method of transmitting information, it’s the apps that might might make use of the microphone/camera/location services that are the potential and more insidious risk.

[Saracen]

It’s not especially Siri/Cortana/Alexa/ and so on are the risk, they are just another method of transmitting information, it’s the apps that might might make use of the microphone/camera/location services that are the potential and more insidious risk.

I would say they are similarly insidious and similarly serious categories of risk that are different but closely related. But ultimately, it depends on whether, and how much, people care about either their privacy or risks to it.

After all, what is the more invasive - an app turning on a microphone without permission, or a service you've opted in to being used in a way you didn't know about, agree to or want?

[azrael-]

same idea really as Cortana, most bitched about it. I wonder if the apple worshipers will bitch the same.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Cortana doesn't listen in when your PC is switched off or in sleep mode.

The ne'er-do-well in me can see another implication of the A10 Fusion "blessing". It'll be that much harder, if not downright impossible, to create a "Hackintosh". I bet Apple will be very sorry about that...

[b0redom]

The ne'er-do-well in me can see another implication of the A10 Fusion "blessing". It'll be that much harder, if not downright impossible, to create a "Hackintosh". I bet Apple will be very sorry about that...

Not really, they're only doing it on the iMac pro models, it'll be some time before that becomes standard across all models if ever. I guess they're pitching it as a LOM card like you'd have on high end workstations/servers.

I have the new Macbook pro with the OLED bar and Siri built in. I think they're both massive gimmicks, and a waste of money, but I needed an OSX laptop so my choice was somewhat limited.

[peterb]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Cortana doesn't listen in when your PC is switched off or in sleep mode.

Are you sure?

I would say they are similarly insidious and similarly serious categories of risk that are different but closely related. But ultimately, it depends on whether, and how much, people care about either their privacy or risks to it.

After all, what is the more invasive - an app turning on a microphone without permission, or a service you've opted in to being used in a way you didn't know about, agree to or want?

Well, that is true, but pretty much as soon as you use a telephone, send an e mail, log onto a website, yu are giving up a little bit of data that results in a slight loss of privacy. Take that to extremes and every time you interact with anyone else - by whatever method - you are giving away a little bit of privacy. Or you are exchanging privacy for something you want - the equation then comes down to a balance of trade.

[azrael-]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Cortana doesn't listen in when your PC is switched off or in sleep mode.

Are you sure?

No, not really. I don't have anything "Cortana-enabled". I can't quite see how you'd do it, though. At least not when the PC is switched off.

[Saracen]

Are you sure?



Well, that is true, but pretty much as soon as you use a telephone, send an e mail, log onto a website, yu are giving up a little bit of data that results in a slight loss of privacy. Take that to extremes and every time you interact with anyone else - by whatever method - you are giving away a little bit of privacy. Or you are exchanging privacy for something you want - the equation then comes down to a balance of trade.

That, of course, is true.

But I draw an important distinction between a bit of metadata necessary to provide a service or comply with laws, and gross and sneaky invasion of privacy for commercial purposes. For instance, send a snail mail letter and you are giving up a bit of privacy (srhder address) abd include a return address and you give up a significant bit more.

But the Cortana/Siri/Alexa equivalent is that you hire a courier to deliver a letter, and they take that not only as authorisation to open it, photocopy and archive your correspondence, but also to break into your home several times a day, rummage through your desk and copy your private papers, just in case you ever want to mail them.

Really, all I expect is for comanies to be open, honest, completr and up-front about EXACTLY when they collect data, and what they will do with it not only now but in the future. And they aren't. They typically are very vague about what "alwats on" does, and does not, mean, as well as about what they store, for how long, and what they may choose to do with it in future.

For instance, collecting huge amounts of data, especially biometric data, with carefully defined specific uses now is naff-all use if the same UA has some generic "we can change terms and conditions if we publish a notice" .... and then expect those new terms to apply retrospectively to all data collected until previous highly restrictive terms.

That is, I MIGHT agree to, say, Alexa, PROVIDED any data collected will ONLY ever be used for the purposes I agreed to, and NEVER, under any circumstances, be used for anything else without my specific, opt-in, informed consent.

The problems are two-fold, IMHO.

1) Just about every UA I've ever read, and yes, I'm the saddo that DOES read them before agreeing, has had vast opt-outs for the company enabling them to do pretty much what they wish.

2) Too many large companies have been caught abusing not only UAs, but laws, such as enabling built-in mics and even cameras, for their own purposes. Examples include everything from a certain TV manufacturer snooping on buyer's viewing preferences to VW (et.al.):blowing a huge and highly deliberate raspberry at emissions regulations.

So, the more technology advances, the more intrusive it gets. So, until we cast cast-iron legal protections against privacy invasions, anyone that cares has to take their own decisions on the "balance" you mentioned, and/or precautions. In that spirit, the removal, blockage or deliberate destruction of the lenses of built-in cameras, and a blob of Araldite in built-in microphones, works wonders.

And guess how many emails I've sent in the last, oh, year?

[deepblue08]

same idea really as Cortana, most bitched about it. I wonder if the apple worshipers will bitch the same.

No way, if Apple does it, it's Innovation and Best User Experience. </sarcasm>

[Saracen]

No way, if Apple does it, it's Innovation and Best User Experience. </sarcasm>

I'm not an Apple user (other than my still-operational late 70's Apple IIe) so I can't (reasonably) bitch about it, but if I was and it was similarly imllemented, I would. As for Cortana it wasn't so much it's inclusion I bitched about but the way the precise nature of the implementation. That is to say, the difficulty of the user deciding "no thanks" and being able to simply and easily completely disable it, by which I mean utterly turned off. This was accentuated by MS's attitude that XBox Kinect functionality was built-in, non-optional and short of pulling the mains plug, always-on.

It is one of many examples of their "all your computers are belong to us" attitude, most dramatically demonstrated by the original W10 mandatory updates, on which other than for Enterprise, they have still only marginally rowed back.