Watches That Hear Everything: Apple Ushers In the Era of “Always-Listening” Devices

Apple has announced “always-listening” features for its new Apple Watch. The first, Live Rewind, lets you “rewind time” and get a text transcript of the last 15 seconds of ambient sound. The second, Siri Recap, listens throughout the day and generates a short written report on your iPhone summarizing your conversations. Apple frames this as a way to “refresh” your memory — but the price is a watch that constantly hears both you and everyone nearby whenever the feature is on.

The company has taken a thorough approach to safeguards. Its support page states that the technology neither records nor stores audio, and that the summaries themselves are end-to-end encrypted, inaccessible to anyone, including Apple itself. There is also separate security documentation.

Privacy for the inner circle

The article’s author, however, is worried about something else. Apple is one of the largest technology companies in the world, and its reach means millions of people will get these features and turn them on. That sets a precedent: if Apple does it, then “always-listening” devices are fine — and there’s money to be made from them. Following the startups that already sell pendants and other gadgets, others will rush into this niche, and they will probably do it far worse, with new security and privacy risks.

The experts interviewed agree on the central complaint: Apple protects its own customers’ data, but does almost nothing for the people around them. The technologist Em notes that such devices normalize the constant collection of information about bystanders in any context — even if the watch’s owner is protected, no one asks the people they’re talking to for consent. Thorin Klosowski of the EFF adds that privacy is increasingly framed as a personal responsibility, when in reality it is a collective agreement: we should have the right to talk without fearing that every word is being recorded. Combined with wristbands, rings and smart glasses, he says, the risk of normalization is very real.

A legal dead end

According to Bloomberg, lawyers already see the technology clashing with the laws of several U.S. states, where recording requires the consent of everyone in the conversation — raising the prospect of litigation. Adam Schwartz, the EFF’s director of privacy litigation, points out that there is simply no practical way to consent to or opt out of being recorded, and advises thinking twice before using such technology, out of respect for the privacy of those around you.

Apple, for its part, limits itself to advising users to “be mindful of your surroundings where conversations may be private or sensitive.” The overall message, in the author’s view, is unambiguous: get ready for a world where everyday devices are always listening.

Source: Lobsters