Apple & Google trying to do some damage control

Big Techs have stopped third party contractors from listening to smart speaker voice recordings, but only temporarily

Data privacy issues have become a sticking point for the users of the smart speaker systems by companies like Amazon, Google & Apple. The former two had already been caught for letting the personal recordings of the users be reviewed by humans. More recently a whistleblower revealed that Apple was doing the same with its digital assistant Siri’s recordings.

The company was quick to dismiss the allegation saying that a very small portion of the recordings was analyzed for the sole purpose of improving the service. Nevertheless, Apple which took pride in being the best among the big techs on account of data privacy received sharp criticism and backlash from the users.

To asses the data privacy policy and take stock of the situation, Apple has now suspended the program temporarily across the globe, while it works to review the quality control process and offers a software update to its users to opt-out from the process.

Amazon was the first company guilty of “spying” on its users' personal recordings through Alexa. Despite scathing criticism from different circles the e-commerce giant has yet to…