Apple and Google suspend the analysis of voice recordings made by their services Siri and Google Assistant

In response to consumer concerns, Google announced to pause its Google Assistant queries assessment program for three months in the European Union. Apple does the same with Siri worldwide ... and will ask the user for consent. A compliance with the RGPD. Apple and Google announced in turn to pause their record analysis programs from queries made by users to their Siri and Google Assistant voice assistants. A suspension that will apply for three months in the European Union for Google, and more definitive and global for Apple. These measures should allow the digital giants to show their goodwill, while more and more voices are raised about the exploitation of the recordings and the breaches of privacy. The Data Protection Authority of Hamburg (Germany) opened an investigation following last month's revelations that Google uses contractors to review excerpts of conversations picked up by Google Assistant. The firm explained then that it was for her to improve its service. Soon after, Amazon had confessed to doing the same with Alexa. GAFAM defends itself by pointing out the low percentage of records submitted for analysis - which they say is 0.2% at Google and less than 1% at Apple. "It is necessary to inform the persons concerned in a transparent manner about the processing of voice commands, but also about the frequency and risks of nuisance tripping,"  Apple, whose similar practices have been exposed very recently, advance want to establish a system of prior authorization to obtain the explicit consent of users before performing this type of analysis. A simple compliance with the General Regulations on Data Protection (GDPR), in fact. "While we are conducting a thorough review, we are suspending Siri's global assessment, and as part of a future software update, users will have the opportunity to choose to participate in the trial. "We are committed to delivering an exceptional Siri experience while protecting the privacy of users," said the Apple brand to our colleagues at the US TechCrunch website.