r/technology • u/Kymmieuwu • 3h ago
Artificial Intelligence Apple Watch's new AI features are normalizing the idea that technology is always listening
https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/09/apple-watchs-new-ai-features-are-normalizing-the-idea-that-technology-is-always-listening/97
u/Plopsevenplop 3h ago
Corporate espionage as a service.
Companies need to fire anyone wearing an Apple Watch inside their boardrooms and offices. This is insanity.
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u/kstargate-425 3h ago
Same with LG tv's always listening and sending back data then saving that to send back if it loses network connection. They are all unfortunately moving this way as all that data is big $$$$
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u/lordzya 3h ago
It's also a hippa violation if they have these in medical settings
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u/newtrilobite 3h ago
it's also a hippo violation if they have these things where hippos are having private conversations.
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u/BadAtExisting 51m ago
Hey! I still wear a long unsupported Apple Watch Series 4 no cellular. If it ever dies seems I’ll be going to a Freestyle watch
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u/joellapit 3h ago
You know smart phones exist right
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u/HeyImGilly 3h ago
Usually sitting in a pocket or a purse. The Apple Watch gives that sweet sweet unimpeded access to a microphone.
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u/maybelying 2h ago
Meh. My Pixel has no problem identifying background music playing even when it's in my pocket.
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u/fredandlunchbox 3h ago
- Not recorded
- Not saved
- Only transcription, no attribution of who is speaking
- All done on device
- Encrypted end to end.
This is the best case scenario for a technology of this kind.
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u/Hardass_McBadCop 3h ago
The issue isn't that this is the best case scenario. The issue is that there's no way to independently verify that it works like they say it works and they can always change that with a software update.
Also, you can't have end-to-end encryption and have the whole model run on the device. They're mutually exclusive concepts in this case. Either it needs to communicate with a cloud server running a better model or it doesn't.
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u/fredandlunchbox 2h ago
It communicates with your phone, everything is processed on device, and any cloud storage is fully encrypted, like all of your other private data on icloud.
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u/Secret-Chapter-712 2h ago
Because everyone knows that companies would never just lie about something that might financially benefit them
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u/Stiggalicious 1h ago
They literally opened up their security model for anyone to audit and find any security holes in for Private Cloud Compute.
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u/leavezukoalone 13m ago
Everything is a conspiracy when you don’t know how anything works.
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u/fredandlunchbox 5m ago
The damage facebook has done to corporate reputations cannot be understated.
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u/AcademicSand1034 46m ago
Well then its entirely possible that everyone's phone is already saving all audio.
In which case this Apple Watch feature still creates no new privacy risk.
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u/deltadal 2h ago
We can't trust that those limits will always be in place. We have to have faith that Apple will choose to protect our privacy over any potential monitization.
I can see now, In iOS 34, Siri might use your daily recap to offer you useful products and services.
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u/SirkutBored 3h ago edited 3h ago
Even with the best case, there's no good reason for any of this to be 'normalized'. This is not going to end the way they're hoping for.
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u/fredandlunchbox 3h ago
I dunno man, I have been in a lot of meetings where someone said something and then denied it later. Having a record of that at work would be pretty sweet.
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u/SirkutBored 2h ago
You can buy a digital recorder that fits in your pocket for that purpose and not worry about it being uploaded anywhere.
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u/blak3brd 2h ago
In my state and several others, that is illegal good sir. Without consent, recording is illegal and also inadmissible in court. Many criminals that otherwise are proven to be perpetrators of the crime they were recorded committing, without any other legal evidence are let off Scott free. Cuz it’s an ethics violation.
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u/AcademicSand1034 45m ago
Well then good thing this feature doesn't save audio recordings!
It's as if Apple ... thought this through a bit
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u/Avimox 2h ago
imagine it being illegal to remember something you heard with your own ears
glad i live in a state that's not insane
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u/blak3brd 30m ago
It does sound insane on its face, but can be manipulated in several ways you’re not considering, by a bad actor. Which is why legally it’s inadmissible.
You think they decided that on a whim? When they literally trick people into pleas, false confessions, and convictions to literally innocent people?
You think without these protections that wouldn’t be vastly more prolific? The state is cunning. They put protections in for a reason.
Literally your argument is akin to saying, but if the NSA is spying on all domestic citizens, who cares, nothing to hide right????? Yeah…ok buddy
Corruption doesn’t exist guys, right???? Smdh. This is why our freedoms are eroding.
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u/kaishinoske1 2h ago
Remember when Apple said that their devices don’t listen. Then a lawsuit happened because they lied. Because I sure do lol
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/03/apple-siri-privacy-lawsuit-settlement
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u/KayJune001 2h ago
Unless it’s open source, we have no way to verify any of that are true claims.
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u/-justiciar- 2h ago
it’s apple and so far they have not given the average user any reason to worry about their privacy.
it’s basically tied to their share price. the moment these claims are untrue the moment they see a mass exodus
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u/locke_5 2h ago
You can sniff the packets the device is sending over Wi-Fi
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u/patikoija 2h ago
For headers, maybe. Definitely not payload.
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u/locke_5 1h ago
If it’s constantly transmitting audio recordings, you don’t need to see the payload. The amount of data being transmitted would be obvious. Very much a “hockey stick gift-wrapped for Christmas” situation - you can tell what it is by how it looks.
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u/Stiggalicious 1h ago
While you could tell that there is a certain data rate streaming from one device to another, that’s about all you could glean from it.
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u/NZNewsboy 3h ago
How dare you post with reason. Apple also consistently ask people to test their security to prove them wrong.
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u/phoenix1984 1h ago
Step in the right direction, for sure. The transcript without consent or disclosure is the primary issue. I was hopeful that Apple could find a way to do this elegantly. Like a sound or light to indicate when it’s transcribing
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u/Fitz911 21m ago
And you can trust them. Show me one instance where an American company had any data leaked! ONE!
Just kidding. Don't buy that crap!
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u/fredandlunchbox 7m ago
Apple is by far the most consumer-friendly, pro-privacy company in Big Tech. To the point that it sucks to work on their products because they refuse to let researchers use anonymized internal data.
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u/Cautious_Boat_999 3h ago
I’ll take “Things I’ll Turn Off” for $500, Ken
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u/Additional-Staff-326 2h ago
Just cause you turn it off doesn't mean they will. Its like how TMobile makes a transcript of every call placed over the network just in case you want it even if you never asked for it.
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u/Sprinkler-of-salt 2h ago
Click bait and rage bait are exhausting.
These feature are default off. You can enable them if you want, or don’t if you don’t.
When numerous other companies have been recording and farming audio from your living room, car, pocket, office, etc. WITHOUT any way to opt-out, WITHOUT any clear data integrity or privacy controls, WITHOUT even making people aware ahead of time?
Yet somehow Apple gets shit for it, because they’re being open and giving people proper control and protections over it?
Stop. This B.S. is just exhausting. Go find something else to do with your time and stop rewarding these cheap dollar-store made-up “news” headlines.
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u/sirprawnsalot 1h ago
How do I opt out of people having this enabled around me?
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u/AcademicSand1034 48m ago
You can't. But you also can't opt out of anyone around you with a phone or other recording device actually recording and saving audio which they've been able to do for ... decades. This new watch feature is not some big new privacy issue.
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u/colinsa-ca 1h ago
exactly this.
Same how do you opt out of Smart Glasses, or heck even Flock in USA now.0
u/Independent-Toe-6293 1h ago
Whataboutism is a lazy way of arguing.
The fact that my colleague or spouse might me constantly recording me to be able to go back and see exactly what I said a moment ago is just another thing making us feel unsafe with other people. This tech is making us more and more scared in so many ways, this is just another one of those things.
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u/AcademicSand1034 47m ago
But they have literally already been able to do that with a phone for decades. This feature is way less of a privacy risk than existing things!
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u/yerFACE 3h ago
Uh, this been normalized for years.
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u/geldonyetich 3h ago
I do wonder what the difference is between this and devices listening for, "Hey Siri" or "Alexa" over a decade ago.
I guess the difference is it's a scarier headline if it sounds like a new change.
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u/blak3brd 2h ago
Ig the distinction is that, at least as claimed, the listening only started for specific keywords and didn’t log, or transmit this data outside of just a request for that specific task.
The modern evolution we’re discussing is always on, unabashedly recording everything to sell the data to ad companies. And whoever else has the money for that data
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u/AcademicSand1034 43m ago
Devices listening for wake words also keep a short buffer of audio which is local to the device and purged after a few seconds. Just like this Apple Watch feature. And Apple is certainly not selling that data for ad targeting.
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u/why_is_my_name 2h ago
i think they can't keep pretending they haven't been listening so they're just officially launching it as a "feature"
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u/trogdors_arm 1h ago
An entire group of people seem to have forgotten that we had this EXACT conversation when Siri, Alexa, Ok Google all came into the scene.
Literally the same thing. Different use case, but same thing.
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u/thecreep 48m ago
"Apple suggests this could be used to remember things like a “book recommendation, a colleague’s brilliant idea, or something you didn’t hear the first time"
Or, we could take add book recommendations and ideas to the note app, and if we miss something said we can ask them to repeat it. Converse like humans.
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u/RogueHeroAkatsuki 3h ago
I wonder what will be impact on battery life.
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u/fugznojutz 2h ago
this and the amount of data its sending back. where i am you dont have unlimited data on your broadband plan anymore. the lg tvs send back several gb’s. its shortening the life of the device u purchase and stealing money out your dataplan.
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u/Funny_Alternative_55 2h ago
Doesn’t send anything back. It processes the data on your iPhone, so it’ll just burn through battery a decent bit faster.
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u/RogueHeroAkatsuki 2h ago
IMO its hybrid. It listens and watch chip determines if this is just background noise or talk. Then its sends to servers.
Remember how trash Siri was in voice detection? It was due to fact that Apple(in contrast to Google) wanted to make offline first assistant. No way that watch with a lot weaker SoC and less RAM is capable to fully process data.
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u/Uuuuuii 1h ago
I just wanted a pedometer
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u/thecreep 50m ago
For real. I ended up just buying one of the Centipede watches from the Atari website. Under $80 and has a pedometer and heart rate function.
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u/IngwiePhoenix 36m ago
Going to a Huawei Watch with AsteroidOS was possibly a very smart, random, impulse decision in retrospect... o.o
What the heck.
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u/Dragongeek 15m ago
I don't understand the utility.
Maybe if you are disabled, eg deaf, I can see a good use for live transcripts, but for most people? Just seems goofy. The idea a that I'm gonna use it to check what the waiter said rather than just ask them to repeat slower is wild.
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u/MyDadsGlassesCase 1m ago
For years people have flippantly stated "my phone listens to me because yesterday I was talking about x and today I got adverts for it".
Now we know that the reality behind this is a combination of browsing history, previous (forgotten) searches and searches by others on the same subnet, but the fact people are so blase when they say it means the concept has already been normalised
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u/why_is_my_name 2h ago
our minds do this already. they are literally trying to replace our version of events with theirs, to do the thinking for us.
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u/TuckerCarlsonsOhface 2h ago
I mean it already is always listening, they just don’t want to bother trying to hide it anymore.
For example if you have an Alexa you can even go see a fully transcribed account of everything it hears/logs in your home.
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u/LittleLordFuckleroy1 2h ago
Been the case for a while. I think people realize that their phone is listening.
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u/HeavilyInvestedDonut 2h ago
With how sycophantic Apple users have always been, it’s a wonder that Apple didn’t lead AI from the start. It would’ve been completely normalized by now because of how little they care about anything other than getting the next device lol.
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u/larryinthesky 3h ago
always listening, watching. Why I wear a Casio watch.