Apple stops analysis of users' Siri requests amid privacy concerns

The decision comes in light of a report that found the company's contractors regularly heard confidential information when reviewing recordings

Not paying a phone bill before you leave the UAE can cause problems further down the line . Reuters    

Apple said on Friday it has suspended its global programme where it analysed recordings from users interacting with its voice assistant Siri, after some privacy concerns were raised.

Apple's decision comes in the light of a report in The Guardian last week which said the company's contractors around the globe tasked with reviewing the recordings regularly heard confidential information and private conversations.

"While we conduct a thorough review, we are suspending Siri grading globally," an Apple spokeswoman said in a statement, adding that in a future software update, users will be able to opt out of the programme.

Siri, Apple's iconic voice assistant, allows users to work their iPhone without using their hands, and can send messages, make calls and open multiple applications via voice commands.

Consumers have become accustomed to calling out names for popular voice assistants, such as Amazon's Alexa and Google Assistant, among others.

In an effort to perform quality checks and improve the voice assistant's responses, contractors graded Siri's answers to user queries, The Guardian reported. They also looked at whether the response was triggered accidentally, without a deliberate query from the user, the newspaper said.