Kyle Wiggers (Hacker News):
Back in May, OpenAI said it was developing a tool to let creators specify how they want their works to be included in — or excluded from — its AI training data. But seven months later, this feature has yet to see the light of day.
Called Media Manager, the tool would “identify copyrighted text, images, audio, and video,” OpenAI said at the time, to reflect creators’ preferences “across multiple sources.” It was intended to stave off some of the company’s fiercestcritics, and potentially shield OpenAI from IP-related legal challenges.
But people familiar tell TechCrunch that the tool was rarely viewed as an important launch internally. “I don’t think it was a priority,” one former OpenAI employee said. “To be honest, I don’t remember anyone working on it.”
This was promised by 2025. I’m not holding my breath, but I’m guessing that it happens before Apple’s OCSP preference because there’s a decent chance a court will order it.
Previously:
Artificial Intelligence Copyright OpenAI Privacy Web
Adi Robertson (Hacker News):
Apple has agreed to a $95 million settlement with users whose conversations were inadvertently captured by its Siri voice assistant and potentially overheard by human employees. The proposed settlement, reported by Bloomberg, could pay many US-based Apple product owners up to $20 per device for up to five Siri-enabled devices. It still requires approval by a judge.
If approved, the settlement would apply to a subset of US-based people who owned or bought a Siri-enabled iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, MacBook, iMac, HomePod, iPod touch, or Apple TV between September 17th, 2014 and December 31st, 2024. A user would also need to meet one other major criteria: they must swear under oath that they accidentally activated Siri during a conversation intended to be confidential or private.
Juli Clover:
The lawsuit alleges that Apple recorded conversations captured with accidental Siri activations, and then shared information from those conversations with third-party advertisers.
Two plaintiffs claimed that after speaking about products like Air Jordan shoes and Olive Garden, their devices showed ads for those products, while another said he received ads for a surgical treatment after discussing it privately with his doctor.
[…]
While the lawsuit initially focused on Apple’s lack of disclosure, the first filing was dismissed in February 2021 because it did not include enough concrete data about the recordings that Apple allegedly collected. An amended complaint that focused on Siri recordings used for “targeted advertising” was refiled in September 2021, and that was allowed to move forward.
[…]
Apple says that it “continues to deny any and all alleged wrongdoing and liability, specifically denies each of the Plaintiffs’ contentions and claims, and continues to deny that the Plaintiffs’ claims and allegations would be suitable for class action status.” Apple is settling to avoid further costs of litigation.
I had thought this controversy was about contractors hearing the audio. The advertising angle is new to me. If Apple actually did that, it would be one of the biggest Apple news stories ever. I think it’s much more likely that a third-party app was listening to the microphone or that the ads were not based on audio at all. That said, given that privacy is so important to Apple’s brand, and that it seems so unlikely that Apple’s actually guilty of this, it’s a bit of a mystery why it would want to settle. I would think that proving its innocence would be well worth the legal fees, unless it fears the exposure of other information that would become public in discovery.
Ashley Belanger (Hacker News):
While the settlement appears to be a victory for Apple users after months of mediation, it potentially lets Apple off the hook pretty cheaply. If the court had certified the class action and Apple users had won, Apple could’ve been fined more than $1.5 billion under the Wiretap Act alone, court filings showed.
[…]
It was also possible that the class size could be significantly narrowed through ongoing litigation, if the court determined that Apple users had to prove their calls had been recorded through an incidental Siri activation—potentially reducing recoverable damages for everyone.
Or, maybe they fear a combination of the class being enlarged—almost every iOS user probably had some accidental activations—and a court deciding that the users don’t have to prove anything. Then the damages could really multiply.
Apple probably figures correctly that the advertising allegation will be quickly forgotten. But it’s not a very satisfying resolution. We don’t get to learn the details of what went on, and the compensation is ridiculously low for the people who were actually harmed.
Previously:
Update (2025-01-07): See also: Slashdot.
Iain Thomson:
After being questioned about privacy in a letter from Congress, Cook stated unequivocally that Apple doesn’t collect audio recordings of users without consent.
“Far from requiring a ‘clear, unambiguous trigger’ as Apple claimed in its response to Congress, Siri can be activated by nearly anything, including ‘[t]he sound of a zip’ or an individual raising their arms and speaking,” the complaint reads. “Once activated, Siri records everything within range of the Siri Devices’ microphone and sends it to Apple’s servers.”
[…]
Google is also facing a similar lawsuit after Belgian journalists reportedly found that the Chocolate Factory’s Assistant was also listening in without authorization. That case is still unresolved, and a German investigation into the matter is also ongoing.
Damien Petrilli:
IMHO people should stop giving a pass to Apple and just assume the worst, like for Meta and Google.
Years after years we are told the koolaid that Apple “cares” about privacy. And every year there is a controversy like this, privacy issues, “bugs”.
Nick Heer:
The original complaint (PDF), filed just a couple of weeks after Hern’s story broke, does not once mention advertising. A revised complaint (PDF), filed a few months later, mentions it once and only in passing (emphasis mine)[…] This is the sole mention in the entire complaint, and there is no citation or evidence for it. However, a further revision (PDF), filed in 2021, contains plenty of anecdotes[…]
[…]
I am filing this in the needs supporting evidence column alongside other claims of microphones being used to target advertising. I sympathize with the plaintiffs in this case, but nothing about their anecdotes — more detail on pages 8 and 10 of the complaint — is compelling, as alternative explanations are possible.
[…]
Yet, because Apple settled this lawsuit, it looks like it is not interested in fighting these claims. It creates another piece of pseudo-evidence for people who believe microphone-equipped devices are transforming idle conversations into perfectly targeted ads.
None of these stories have so far been proven, and there is not a shred of direct evidence it is occurring — but I can understand why people are paranoid.
John Gruber:
Apple doesn’t serve well-targeted ads based on text you type, describing exactly what you’re looking for, in the search box in the App Store, but a million gullible idiots believe they’re serving uncannily accurate ads based on snippets of random conversations secretly recorded from across the room.
Juli Clover:
No Siri data has ever been used for marketing purposes or sold to a third-party company for any reason, Apple said today in response to accusations that conversations Siri has captured were used for advertising.
Advertising Apple iOS iOS 12 Lawsuit Legal Privacy Siri
Autodesk (via Hacker News):
To keep our community efficient and up to date, we’ll be archiving content older than 10 years. We built a policy around document retention to stay relevant to our users and customers.
[…]
The archiving process will start in December and is planned to be completed before the end of [2024].
[…]
Archiving is based on the creation date of the idea or forum thread. The latest activity does not affect the archiving process. All replies and comments within a topic being archived will also be archived.
kerry_w_brown:
The title says archiving but the posts indicate Unfortunately, we cannot keep the content, which in my book is DELETING.
[…]
Deleting everything that was originated prior to 10 years ago will destroy a wealth of information that is still viable. This information has not been transferred to the “Help” files and will no longer be searchable, the bookmarked links (published and personal) will no longer be available and the peers who provided this information probably won’t be available ( or not inclined ) to reproduce the information when it is required.
These groups are peer to peer and the answers to peoples questions and solutions to problems is typically provided by users of the products, not by the builders of the products. I consider this action to be an insult to the efforts of the people who have, at their own expense, graciously helped other users over the years.
Previously:
AutoCAD Autodesk Datacide Web
Filipe Espósito:
As noted by many users on the Apple Community forums, Reddit and even corroborated by a 9to5Mac reader, the M4 Macs seem to break support for some ultrawide monitors. More specifically, those with 5K2K (5120 x 2160) resolution.
According to these reports, M4 Macs don’t display the proper resolution options for these monitors, which makes the interface and text look blurry. The same monitors work just fine with older Macs, whether Intel or Apple Silicon. But when connected to an M4 Mac, they no longer work in HiDPI mode – which upscales the interface to make it sharper.
[…]
Some users have managed to enable HiDPI using third-party tools such as BetterDisplay, but this causes other drawbacks such as the refresh rate dropping from 75Hz to 60Hz.
Previously:
Apple M4 BetterDisplay Bug Display Mac macOS 15 Sequoia Retina
