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What is Apple’s Siri and should you be worried about your privacy?

Siri is a speech-recognition software application found on the iPhone 4S that acts as a “personal assistant.” As of right now, it’s only available in the iPhone 4S models, but it may eventually come to other Apple devices such as the iPhone 4 or iPad. Siri utilizes natural language processing to interpret questions and commands inputted through speech. There are two aspects of Siri that make it such a revolutionary technology when utilized on handheld devices such as the iPhone. First, its ability to interpret spoken natural language enables the user to give commands as if talking to a living person. This has potential to change the way in which we humans interface with computers.

Second, Siri is exceedingly observant and even learns, perhaps more observant than many of us have yet to fully appreciate. Siri knows what you ask, when you ask it, how you asked it, even where you were when you asked it; Siri won’t forget. As time goes on, Siri will grow increasingly knowledgeable about you, your associations, and your habits. The computing power behind Siri isn’t sequestered on your iPhone – it’s in the cloud and, therefore, everything it learns about you may be utilized in ways you never intended it to be. Think of Siri as omniscient personal assistant who serves each and every one of the millions of iPhone users at once. Although Siri has promised to keep your secrets – perhaps she’s even signed a confidentiality agreement – Siri may rely upon something she learned from you today to assist your neighbor tomorrow. Is this a bad thing? Well, maybe not, provided you’re aware Siri is doing this.

Siri’s ability to learn is perhaps one of the most exciting traits the technology has to offer, but it’s also potentially alarming if privacy is one of your top priorities. This is because of the way Siri relies on cloud computing to understand all of the data it learns about you, which includes information you directly input (such as a question or command) as well as other contextual data that you may not think you are sharing (such as your location or even your tone of voice). Siri processes and analyzes all of this information using an amalgam of applications, which include voice recognition and output software, natural language searching algorithms, and an iteration of Wolfram Alpha (a sophisticated answer engine) to generate a relevant and seemingly sentient response. Over time, Siri builds a contextual understanding of you and what it learns about you is ultimately stored somewhere.

At first glance this may not seem so different than other services we already use on a daily basis such as Google or Amazon. Google has been tracking our searching behavior for over a decade. Amazon has been learning about our shopping habits for just as long. The derivative use of this information is part of what has made these companies so profitable and certainly has fueled the explosion of the information age. What makes Siri so exceptional is that it exemplifies how integrated, unobtrusive, and seamless these technologies are becoming. We’re no longer in the age of desktop computers, which sat, stationary, in our offices or living rooms. Many of us have taken to these small, powerful, and elegantly designed technological marvels without a second thought as to what is actually going on behind the curtain. Perhaps this love affair with our portable devices such as the iPhone has distracted us from the progressive and unyielding erosion of our own privacy that has been unfolding over the past few decades.

Are Siri and similar technologies something we should be worried about? Is Siri big brother’s female counterpart? Should we all take up arms, retreat to our basements, and don tinfoil helmets? No, of course not. Siri is an exemplary technology, which demonstrates the direction the portable device revolution is headed. The common sharing and utilization of personal data will undoubtedly help the vast majority of us become more organized and productive. But the takeaway is that we all need to pause to appreciate the striking fact that your privacy isn’t what it used to be and, therefore, it is incumbent on you make an effort to understand how and what you share will be used by others. Only then can you make a deliberate decision as to how best utilize technologies such as Siri in a way that is consistent with your own needs and interests.

What information does Siri collect?

Although Apple recently pulled its About Siri and Privacy page, a cached version is still available. It’s likely that Apple will post and updated version in the days or weeks to come. The page provided some insight into what types of information Siri relied on in order to do her magic. The page indicated that Siri would collect two types of data: User Data and Voice Input Data, which Apple defined as:

User Data sent to Apple enables Siri to help you when you say things like “Call Dad” or “How do I get to work from here?” Voice Input Data is used by Apple to process your request, to help Siri better recognize what you say and may be used generally to improve the overall accuracy and performance of Siri and other Apple products and services. Voice Input Data is associated with your verbal commands and may include:

Audio recordings

Transcripts of what you said

Related diagnostic data, such as hardware and operating system specifications and performance statistics

Based on these somewhat broad definitions, it seems that Siri will be collecting a vast array of personal information from its users. In other words, Siri is going to collect much more than the mere content of your queries or commands. As a case in point, you may want Siri to know that your daughter’s first name is Natalie and that she has a particular cellular phone number, but you may not be entirely comfortable that Siri also knows that you call her when you pick her up from elementary school every weekday at the corner of School Street and Center Street at 3:15 PM. Depending on your own perspective on the importance of privacy, you may not be comfortable with Siri collecting and analyzing all of this information.

The point here is that you should be aware that this type of data is being collected and that you cannot be absolutely sure about how it’s being used. Have you heard about the husband that allegedly used his wife’s iPhone’s Find My Friends feature to discover that she had been having an affair? Would you take issue with someone having the ability to track your location without your knowledge? As these technologies and services become more ubiquitous in our everyday lives we should at least take some time to understand what data might be shared and what, if any, risks that may be created by the sharing of that data.

Will someone access your personal information?

If you use a portable device like an iPhone then you are already sharing a significant amount of information that you might consider to be private. While the vast majority of us have nothing to be concerned about, you should not only understand what types of data might be shared, but also who might access it.

Whatever you share is in the cloud, for anyone to read should they be resourceful enough to gain access to it. To use the analogy I used earlier, you can think of Siri as a personal assistant. Sure, she may have sworn on her mother’s grave that she would never tell anyone what you had disclosed to her behind closed doors, but if Siri does spill the beans then you’re out of luck. To Apple’s credit, there is a fairly robust privacy policy in place, Apple does have an unparalleled reputation for being a responsible corporation, and lastly, there isn’t anything in the world that would kill Siri and the iCloud quicker than a systemic security breach. Seemingly secure databases have been compromised in the past. Does anyone remember the monumental breach of the PlayStation Network earlier this year where tens of millions of users’ personal account data was stolen? It’s naive to assume that the data Apple, or any company for that matter, will never be hacked or otherwise obtained by some unknown third party.

What about government surveillance? The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“ECPA”) has been widely criticized for its apparent inability to safeguard personal information that is stored in the cloud. In its present form, the ECPA treats data stored in the cloud differently than data stored locally on your computer’s hard drive. For example, if you have an email account (e.g. Yahoo or Gmail) government officials may access that data without a warrant; all the authorities need to do is certify that the information to be collected will be relevant to a criminal investigation.

What does this mean for you? Be careful of what you share because other people could potentially access information that you may consider to be personal and private. The cloud really does present some interesting concerns regarding privacy and it’s worth your while to take a little bit of time to understand them.

Some perspective: Siri isn’t a new threat to your privacy.

Sharing our personal information isn’t anything new; we’ve been leaking our personal information in ways unanticipated and unknown to ourselves for decades. Every time you use a credit card, rewards card, run a Google search, or log onto a computer you are sharing something about yourself. Siri is one of the more sophisticated and easily accessible services of this sort that we have yet seen and that’s truly an exciting thing. But it’s also disconcerting to think about how much Siri will come to know about us. The fact that Siri is so convenient and so seamless makes it incredibly easy not to think about the risks associated with sharing too much information. Provided you’re conscious of the simple fact that whatever you share with Siri may not be forever held in secrecy then you have nothing to worry about. If you’re still especially concerned over the prospect of Siri getting to know you, you can always deactivate Siri.

Jonathan Zschau is the author of the new book Buying and Owning a Mac: Secrets Apple Doesn’t Want You to Know and contributing writer at CultofMac.com.

Like the movies we watched as a kid where those super top secret government buildings had those cool doors that could be opened or locked from a computer hundreds of miles away, we can now do the very same thing! CyberLock Flex System Door and I/O module allows you to “access capabilities of the key-centric CyberLock solution to doors: brisk communications, location graphics, access scheduling by the door and person, audit reporting of lock and key activity, email alerts, and more.” In other words, no door will be beyond your control with this solution! CyberLock’s system makes security affordable and accessible for any entity and takes the magic from Hollywood’s movies and puts it on your front door.

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Do you find yourself at work wishing you could listen to that album on your home computer but you can’t bring it in and put it on your word PC due to policy? Of course, your library is so large, the cloud is an expensive option. Or what about sharing a file to your laptop while out of the office but it needs to be secure? What to do? Get a twin. An iTwin.

iTwin is an interesting new way to share files with two USB “keys” that are placed in on the host and the other on the client. In other words, plug in one side of the iTwin on your home Mac and then the other one on your work’s PC and you’ve got access to your music. (You caught the Mac/PC combo, right? ) Of course, an Internet connection is required. Since this is between two devices, it will be a sunny day without any clouds.

Very interesting concept that has definite promise for those that need a secure and unlimited amount of transfer. Take a look at the video below.

iTwin – Works on Windows and Mac from iTwinCast on Vimeo.

We love our Dropbox here at SvenOnTech which allows us all to communicate and share files and ideas easily no matter where we are in the world. But one thing we’ve never been a fan of is the lack of security on Dropbox due to the absence of encryption. Well, there’ a new kid in town and he’s got “Military-grade encryption” so says the Zen. ZenOK puts money where its talk is with a $100,000 USD data protection guarantee, too. Nice!

Currently available for Windows – Mac, Linux, iPad, iPhone, Android, Blackberry support forthcoming – you can start backing up, syncing, sharing, publishing, and if needed, restoring today. Zen Master Diego Gutierrez, Link Manager of ZenOK, tells SvenOnTech, “We are launching 21GB free online storage for users upon invitation for home-users.” To get that invite, travel to free.zenok.com for that invite and tell them SvenOnTech sent ya!

Password protection is a crafty and difficult task. One easy password used across many web sites can lead to a bad nightmare for you. So how does one avoid such a horror? One password for many. That is, create difficult passwords for all your various sites and protect that database with one easy to remember password. mSecure 3.0 lets you do this over various platforms to help with this task. Give the video a play and read the details below from its pre-release.

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NZXT, a company built on realizing the dreams of gamers worldwide, is proud to announce Bunker, an advanced USB locking device designed for USB expansion and protection of gaming accessories. Plug in gaming mice, keyboards, and headphones and lock it with a sophisticated 20 key lock system and durable door to prevent theft at LAN parties and schools. Bunker installs easily into any open 5.25” drive bay and provides 4 additional USB ports for expanded connectivity.

“We place a great deal of importance on portability and security,” said Johnny Hou, Founder and Chief Designer at NZXT. “Whether you’re transporting your rig to a LAN party or would like more peace of mind in the dorm, Bunker will ensure that your peripherals and media remain secure.”

Bunker will be available in March for the MSRP of $24.99. For more information visit www.nzxt.com/new/products/case_accessories/bunker.

Using a baby monitor is paramount when having a baby, which is why Withings is proud of its release of the Smart Baby Monitor. Developed with both technology and design in mind, Withings has produced a device that not only looks stunning, but also gives parents important information on their child’s environment and allows them to interact with their child remotely and easily.

Cédric Hutchings, co-founder of Withings says: “We’ve already established the most seamless interface with smartphones such as the iPhone, so transitioning this technology to other devices is ideal for us. The old-school classical baby monitor with its redundant receiver could not stay away from an unavoidable move to the Internet of Things. That is why Withings revisited it and created an object in line with our current time.”

Unlike traditional monitors, the Withings Smart Baby Monitor was made for iPhone users in mind. It does not consist of two physical objects (the camera and the receiver), however it’s a smart sensor (camera) alone that can communicate with any existing connected screen (iPhone, iPad, Smartphone, PC, Mac, tablet, eBook reader, LCDTV, etc.).

The Smart Baby Monitor features a high-resolution 3MP camera, extra wide view lens and night vision with infrared LEDs. The Smart baby Monitor can detect any event in the room without being moved.

The smart sensor gives parents access to a multitude of information, including audio/video (day & night vision) and ambient parameters (temperature & humidity) remotely from anywhere in the world.

The Smart Baby Monitor is also equipped with a microphone that allows parents to interact and sooth their child even when they are not physically in the room. Another feature allows parents to control the music (lullabies) that plays in the room through the monitor and can change songs or play-lists right from the living room, the office or from anywhere in the world. Alarms may also be set to alert parents of baby sleep disruption based on parameters such as activity/movement, audio levels and temperature/humidity. These alarms are completely customizable by the user.

Connectivity is made easy for users so the user never has to get anxious with configuring his product. The Withings Smart Baby Monitor will adapt itself to the best network path, be it local with Bluetooth, WiFi or wire.

The design of the product is sleek, modern, simple and unobtrusive. The monitor’s hinge design allows parent to open the camera to activate it or adapt it to the vision angle. People simply flip the camera shut to turn it off and stop camera monitoring. The camera is then protected for transportation.

Because the Smart Baby Monitor is a communicant product, it will be enhanced with additional services made by Withings and third parties.

Smart Baby Monitor received two awards from Observeur du Design 2011 and two awards during the Consumer Electronics Show 2011. The Withings Smart Baby Monitor will be available in late March 2011.

BullGuard, specialists in user-friendly PC & Mobile security solutions, rocketed to the top of the AV-Test Labs October list when its brand new security suite was submitted to the independent lab. Now, BullGuard can celebrate the holiday season firmly seated at the head of the table as the results for November are in, and BullGuard came out first yet again.

These are the test results which prove that BullGuard’s security products are superior in virus detection.

Protection against 0-day (“Real World”) attacks:
BullGuard result: 100%
Industry average (based on 23 security products): 81%

Blocking malware (Dynamic Detection Testing):
BullGuard result: 95%
Industry average (based on 23 security products): 45%

Detection of AV-Test Labs “representative malware set”:
BullGuard result: 98%
Industry average (based on 26 security products): 96%

Detection of Wildlist malware:
BullGuard result: 100%
Industry average (based on 26 security products): 100%

“We’re of course absolutely thrilled to establish our position like this,” said Claus Villumsen, BullGuard CTO.
“The secret behind these outstanding results is the structure we have chosen for our security suite. We carefully establish a maximum security environment with an architecture based on layered defences and technologies.
The layers include a variety of web scanning, behavior blocking and traditional signature detection tools. BullGuard’s unique way of combining the different technologies guarantees that any malicious code that gets through one layer will be caught by the next,” Villumsen explained.

AV-Test’s results will be published on its website, http://www.av-test.org, in Q1 2011, along with the results for the rest of the industry. However, reviewers are welcome to request BullGuard’s test results.

Independent test results from AV-Test lab put BullGuard Internet Security version 10 at the very front of the security industry. See the results here

ZoomSafer announced today at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show that its innovative safe driving software is now available for Android phones, the fastest growing smart phone platform in the world.

³Governments throughout the world continue to pass new laws to combat distracted driving, but drivers still endanger themselves, their passengers, and their employers by texting, emailing and talking without using hands-free services,² said ZoomSafer CEO Matt Howard. ³Android-based smartphones are surging in popularity and we are excited to offer our patented software to Android users seeking to prevent distracted driving.²

ZoomSafer® client software installed on smartphones automatically launches when you begin to drive and automatically turns off when you are finished driving. ZoomSafer¹s patented on-device software can be configured to trigger using in-vehicle telematics or Bluetooth systems, as well as phone-based GPS services. Once triggered, the ZoomSafer software disables emailing and texting and manages other inbound and outbound communications based on client-controlled and administered policies. Popular policy options include the ability to make and receive hands-free phone calls and an auto-reply function, which sends messages to let others know that the user is driving.

Those interested in participating in the beta should click on the ³Android Beta² link on the ZoomSafer website.

ZoomSafer software is also currently available on BlackBerry devices. For more information or to participate in the Android beta, please visit ZoomSafer at CES in the Las Vegas Convention Center North Hall, Booth #2334 or at www.zoomsafer.com.