Following up on yesterday’s article about Apple firing more than 300 contractors grading Siri requests, the company has stated that it will halt the Siri grading program while giving it a “thorough review.”
The company has apparently finished the review and issued a statement apologizing for the way in which the program had been carried out. Apple also stated that it plans to reactivate the program this fall following some important changes.
Apple’s apology stated that “privacy is a fundamental human right,” and then describes how Apple designed Siri to protect your privacy by collecting as little data as possible, using random identifiers instead of personally identifiable information, never using data to build marketing profiles or sell to others.
The statement also details how user data helps the software improve, that “training” on real data is necessary, and only 0.2 percent of Siri requests were graded by humans.
In short, the fired contractors will probably be brought back after some significant changes to the program and policy.
Stay tuned for additional changes as they become available.