{"id":65353,"date":"2026-09-15T08:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T11:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/?p=65353"},"modified":"2026-09-15T08:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T11:06:15","slug":"apple-watch-listening-privacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/en\/apple-watch-listening-privacy\/","title":{"rendered":"With Apple Watch that eavesdrops on conversations, what\u2019s at stake is public perception"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve published more than a couple of pieces on this blog trying to raise awareness about the risks of viral photo-editing apps, like FaceApp back in 2019<\/a> [pt_BR].<\/p>\n

We are curious beings. The promise of looking into a magic mirror that shows us old, as a different gender, or in another era is nearly irresistible \u2014 a force that makes many people ignore the warning signs, even the obvious ones.<\/p>\n

This kind of thing used to be more sporadic and required some effort to take part in \u2014 at the very least, downloading a new app \u2014, and a bigger leap of faith in unknown apps.<\/p>\n

The arrival of ChatGPT\u2019s image generator changed that.<\/p>\n

The first hit was the Ghibli-studio trend. In early September, the new craze (at least here in Brazil) was photos with a 1980s aesthetic.<\/p>\n

In practical terms, ChatGPT and those questionable apps of yore are no different in how they treat the content submitted to them. OpenAI\u2019s privacy policy<\/a>, in fact, is explicit about what was once only speculated due to lack of information. It confirms that data submitted by users \u2014 including images \u2014 is retained and used for various purposes, among them training new artificial intelligences:<\/p>\n

As noted above, we may use Content you provide us to improve our Services, for example to train the models that power ChatGPT. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, although full of issues of its own, is several levels above the old viral photo-editing apps in terms of brand recognition and trust. So much so that hardly anyone talks today about the risks of sending your photos there.<\/p>\n

The ends are the same, and so are the circumstances (going viral on social media). What changes is public perception. ChatGPT normalized what used to be met with some unease and a bit of apprehension. Now, nobody cares.<\/p>\n

On LinkedIn, Pedro Burgos posted this provocation<\/a> [pt_BR, loosely translated]:<\/p>\n

I find it cute how people who automatically send every single photo they take to iCloud and Google Photos suddenly get scared of joining the [1980s] trend over privacy risks, scams, or whatever.<\/p>\n

And worse, there are influencers cashing in on people\u2019s fear.<\/p>\n

Let folks be happy posting fun AI photos, people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I replied to him that this is a false equivalence.<\/p>\n

Both iCloud and Google Photos do use algorithms to recognize and group photos of specific people (faces), offer more precise search, and provide other conveniences to organize, retrieve, and edit images \u2014 but extrapolating from that to say it\u2019s the same thing ChatGPT does is a whole different ballgame. There are fundamental differences between the two situations.<\/p>\n

Both companies, Apple<\/a> and Google<\/a>, state in help documents that material stored by users in their photo services is not used to train models, AIs, or other applications.<\/p>\n

From Apple:<\/p>\n

[\u2026] Apple does not access your photos or videos, and does not use them for research and development.<\/p>\n

Photos uses on-device machine learning to deliver a personalized experience, organize photos and videos in ways that are meaningful to you, and power features like Sharing Suggestions, Memories, the People & Pets Album, and Featured Photos. [\u2026]<\/p>\n

Photos additionally uses on-device analysis to recognize the faces of people in photos, and groups them together in the People & Pets Album. [\u2026]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From Google:<\/p>\n

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