Your Apple Watch Is Always Listening, Will Anyone Ever Be Honest Again?

News just broke that the new Apple Watch Series 12 will have a feature called “Siri Recap” that uses “ambient listening” to “take notes” that users can later review as a summary.

On a related note, I have just announced that I will no longer have conversations with anyone, ever.

Do tech companies ever stop to think about the misery they unleash on people’s lives? The Apple Watch Series 12 uses “Audio Intelligence” that, as well as secretly taking notes, also has a Live Rewind feature that can replay the last 15 seconds of recently detected audio and view a text transcript.

Wow. Picture this: you’re arguing with your partner and boom, suddenly you replay the terrible thing they just said to you. This is truly a Black Mirror episode.

It’s reminiscent of Meta’s maligned smart glasses that have come under intense scrutiny because of nefarious wearers who use them to record people without consent and later ridicule them on the internet, often on Meta platforms.

At least Meta’s glasses have a blinking LED light that lets others know they are recording, a feature the company has been enforcing recently.

How will anyone ever know that a smartwatch is recording their conversation? Apple makes no mention of any recording light, nor does it mention the other parties’ consent.

Here’s the thing: Apple Watches are far more common than Meta smart glasses. Has Apple thought this through? If their smartwatches start getting a similar rep to Meta’s glasses, then there could be a serious backlash.

Granted, there is no visual footage that can be posted online afterward, but the idea that some weirdo watch wearer is going through the notes of a conversation they had with me that I thought was private is repellent.

We already live in a low-trust society and stuff like this just makes it worse. People are tired of being constantly surveilled; look at the backlash against Flock cameras and facial recognition at big events.

It’s bad enough when a government or corporate entity records you. The idea that your friend or some acquaintance is making a secret recording of you that you have no clue about is somehow even more sickening.

PetaPixel is a photography website and for decades photographers have gone onto the streets hoping to make a picture of a stranger or scene. But this is not that. This is something totally different. It’s a dark path that we are being led down by companies listed on the NASDAQ and I don’t want to go.

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Image creditsHeader photo licensed via Depositphotos.