Conversation

Well, there are certainly a couple of companies who claim to be listening to voices via devices. For example:

"What would it mean for your business if you could target potential clients who are actively discussing their need for your services in their day-to-day conversations? No, it's not a Black Mirror episode—it's Voice Data, and CMG has the capabilities to use it to your business advantage.”

Of course they might be exaggerating but Google took the reporting seriously enough that they removed one of them from their Partners Program.

And of course that doesn't mean it's necessarily via a phone, and even if they (or somebody else) are getting it via an iPhone they're not necessarily getting it via Apple, and even if they're getting it from Apple it's not necessarily because Apple's misusing Siri QA logs.

You'd think Apple wouldn't want to take the risk of damaging their brand by misusing the data like that. Then again you'd also think Apple wouldn't want to take the risk of damaging their brand by non-consensually recording conversations between doctors and patients and sharing it with contractors, ... and it sure looks like they did that. So who knows, the only thing that's completely clear in all this is that Apple decided it was better to settle the lawsuit than risk further discovery and publicity.

Here's the original reporting (paywalled)
https://www.404media.co/heres-the-pitch-deck-for-active-listening-ad-targeting/

https://www.404media.co/mindsift-brags-about-using-smart-device-microphone-audio-to-target-ads-on-their-podcast/

And here's a non-paywalled summary

https://www.techtimes.com/articles/307372/20240904/cox-media-group-reveals-active-listening-software-spies-user-convos.htm

@inquiline @fivetonsflax