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  • Matt Blazemattblaze@federate.social
    Sep 9, 2026, 10:58 PM

    The Apple watch has long had audio recording capabilities. In 2018, Jamal Khashoggi (the journalist assassinated at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul) may or may not have used his smartwatch to transmit live audio of his abduction (though the facts are in dispute).

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  • Scott Francisdarkuncle@infosec.exchange
    Sep 9, 2026, 9:26 PM

    @mattblaze the support page has some really useful details about how and when this is enabled (none of these features appear to be enabled by default) support.apple.com/en-us/148354

    Apple Legal presumably spent a non-trivial amount of time reviewing this; I'm curious if their reasoning went beyond "liability rests with the user"

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  • Glyphglyph@mastodon.social
    Sep 9, 2026, 9:47 PM

    @mattblaze they don't say, but there's language about having it run "on a schedule" which sounds *very* suspicious in terms of all-party consent

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  • mccmcc@mastodon.social
    Sep 9, 2026, 9:48 PM

    @mattblaze We had a discussion about this on Bluesky; here's a document that explains the feature and a summary by @Tekgo .

    bsky.app/profile/did:plc:l2trc

    Appears:
    - When setting up the watch you are asked if you want to enable it
    - Some things are continuously stored in a 15-second self-destroying loop
    - Some things are saved automatically when the feature is on
    - Some things are saved when you press a button to preserve the last few moments
    - Apple is trying to use secure enclaves as a figleaf

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  • mccmcc@mastodon.social
    Sep 9, 2026, 9:52 PM

    @mattblaze I am upset, and I am *very* curious what happens when Apple's "we tracked a bunch of stuff, but used security technology to make it hard for the user to get at some of it!" runs into a government who wants Apple to give them access to the stuff Apple considers "secure".

    I imagine a conversation along the lines of

    Apple: We can't give you that information because we put it in a box. Not even we can open the box!

    Government: But you built the box, right?

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  • Matt Blazemattblaze@federate.social
    Sep 9, 2026, 9:57 PM

    @mcc Apple is casting the privacy issues as chiefly about keeping the users' recordings and transcripts private from Apple/gov't/hackers/etc. I believe they might be able to do a good job here. But that's only half the story. The other issue is the privacy of the people who happen to be around the device, who aren't Apple's customers.

    It's not clear (one way or the other) if Apple has built what might be an illegal surveillance device.

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  • mccmcc@mastodon.social
    Sep 9, 2026, 10:01 PM

    @mattblaze I think that's a great point. I also kind of feel like (I haven't read the document; I apologize for talking about this without having read the document) Apple's defense against THAT point may turn out to be "oh, but we don't let the users get to the [raw audio]/[raw transcripts], they can only access [thing they can access]" but [the thing the user can access] is in some way a representation of the same data.

    That might confuse a court enough to drop it but *I'm still uncomfortable*

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  • Jason Petersen (he)jason@logoff.website
    Sep 10, 2026, 4:12 AM

    @mcc @mattblaze they already had this discussion in San Bernardino and fought the government when the government tried to compel them to do work to subvert the devices they built, no?

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  • mccmcc@mastodon.social
    Sep 10, 2026, 4:55 AM

    @jason They fought it, but
    - According to Wikipedia the courts never ruled on it
    - The reason the courts never ruled is the government found a way in without Apple's help, which isn't *exactly* reassuring
    - Anyway, the United States is not actually the most terrifying government in the world

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  • Matt Blazemattblaze@federate.social
    Sep 9, 2026, 10:24 PM

    @n1vux Always listening and always recording / transcribing aren't the same, though. And who controls it matters.

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  • ohirohir@vivaldi.net
    Sep 9, 2026, 10:28 PM

    @mattblaze

    (2)(iii)(d) ... is a party to the communication OR where one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent ...

    *OR*

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  • KnowAttitudeknowattitude@m.ai6yr.org
    Sep 9, 2026, 10:32 PM

    @mattblaze
    I'm curious about what is required to activate picket lines outside of Apple stores everywhere.

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  • Steve BellovinSteveBellovin@infosec.exchange
    Sep 9, 2026, 11:07 PM

    @mattblaze The only thing I would add: definitions are important in law, and most statutes contain them. For the Federal wiretapping statute, they’re in 18 U.S.C. 2510.

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  • Matt Griffinmattgriffin@masto.ai
    Sep 9, 2026, 11:03 PM

    @mattblaze I live in Massachusetts and I think about this all the time. Especially in regards to doorbell cameras that record audio.

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  • Sylvie :lego_blush: :elementary_os: :redox_os:sylvie@gabriel.havfruefestning.com
    Sep 9, 2026, 11:17 PM

    @mattblaze From the Apple post "Siri Recap runs only when you choose. You can turn on Siri Recap in the Watch app on iPhone. When you turn it on, you can set a schedule based on time and/or location (for example, "only at work" or "never at night"), or you can manually turn it on and off. Across all these options, you can always turn it on or off at any time from Control Center." https://support.apple.com/en-gb/148354

    So Siri Recap, not to be confused with the Live Recap 'last 15 seconds' feature, can be opt-in set to always run except when sleeping essentially, or always on if you want.

    To clarify what exactly Siri Recap is: "Siri Recap ambiently takes notes on your conversations throughout your day and creates high-level Apple Intelligence–generated summaries that you can use later to jog your memory, so you can stay present in the moment. Your summaries auto-delete after 7 days if you choose not to save them."

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  • RalfMaximusralfmaximus@mastodon.social
    Sep 10, 2026, 1:38 AM

    @mattblaze @sylvie

    So Apple users in my vicinity will be recording me without consent or knowledge, and those recordings are stored in Apple's cloud for a week, minimum?

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  • TessTsluijter@mastodon.social
    Sep 10, 2026, 4:36 AM

    @mattblaze OMG, they made the iPhone into that fake AI transcription box which keeps coming up in YouTube commercials!!

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