HomeKit Could Apple do to a user what Amazon did to this guy?

[DominikHoffmann]

An Alexa home automation user had his service shut down by Amazon for a week, because an Amazon delivery driver deemed something the user’s smart door bell said to him or her as racist. See the story at the user Brandon Jackson’s Medium post.

Would this be possible with HomeKit automation? I would think, not, because automations and voice commands are processed locally on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or HomePod. However, I am not 100% sure. What do you guys think?

 

[coredev]

Let's hope not.

I heard a tale years back of a guy who was banned from Amazon for ordering and then returning products one time too often. They did not want him as a customer anymore.
While that's fine, and totally their prerogative, he also lost access to all his purchased Kindle and Audible content. And that's totally uncool.

Needless to say, if Apple blocked my account for deeming me not conforming to their world views, I would be royally fudged.

 

[iStorm]

Would this be possible with HomeKit automation? I would think, not, because automations and voice commands are processed locally on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or HomePod. However, I am not 100% sure. What do you guys think?

There are only a small handful of things that Siri can do locally. Try putting your iPhone in airplane mode and ask her to do a simple math question, like "what is 2+2". It won't work. You'd think that could be done locally.

My HomePod wasn't able to do any HomeKit commands when I unplugged my modem for a bit. (HomePod was still connected to my Wi-Fi network.) I'm assuming it needs access to your Apple account if it requires an internet connection.

So in theory, yes, a similar thing could happen if you were to get locked out of your Apple account for whatever reason. Would Apple do it for the same reasons Amazon did? Probably not, but never say never.

 

[Xenden]

There needs to be a law against this. It would be fine if they don’t want to deliver anything to him again, but NO ONE should be able to disable your devices or access to your devices based on what you you say.

I don’t care if someone is the biggest racist in the world.

Not that I’m endorsing racism, but people and companies have gone crazy. Why is tolerance a one way street. Tolerance should include tolerating those you consider are intolerant. So long as there is no violence.

 

[arw]

Only the initial "Hey Siri" trigger is processed locally when it comes to HomeKit:

When 'Listen for Hey Siri' is turned on, the accessory listens for the 'Hey Siri' phrase using a locally running trigger-phrase detection engine. (…)
After a successful invocation of Siri is detected, the HomePod sends the audio to Siri servers and fulfills the user's intent (…).

https://support.apple.com/guide/security/communication-security-sec3a881ccb1/web

So technically, yes, Apple could do the "same" (if the story actually proves to be true - sounds a bit too woke for a company that usually puts its customers far before their employees).

Actual local processing is limited to:

• Create and disable timers and alarms.
• Launch apps.
• Control Apple Music and Podcasts audio playback.
• Control system settings including accessibility features, volume, Low Power mode, Airplane mode, and so on.

https://www.macrumors.com/guide/ios-15-siri/

 

[coredev]

There needs to be a law against this. It would be fine if they don’t want to deliver anything to him again, but NO ONE should be able to disable your devices or access to your devices based on what you you say.

I don’t care if someone is the biggest racist in the world.

Not that I’m endorsing racism, but people and companies have gone crazy. Why is tolerance a one way street. Tolerance should include tolerating those you consider are intolerant. So long as there is no violence.

I agree with your statement up to the last part, to which I disagree.
Even if there is violence involved, it is not up to a corporation to punish people.
And purposefully rendering someones devices useless and cutting them off without hearing or trial is punishment.

Large tech companies have accumulated way too much power, and I agree there should be a law to prevent abuse of this power.

 

[Xenden]

I agree with your statement up to the last part, to which I disagree.

By violence, I mean attacking the delivery guy. I guess you could argue that you should still be able to buy from a company if they have a pick up locker.

I’m pretty liberal when it comes what people should be able to do or say before a company should no longer do business with a person. My line is violence. By that I mean attacking employees or calling in bomb threats.

 

[dotme]

Could Apple disable your iCloud account? Yep, but the accessories can be reset and linked to a new one. As for Amazon, what on earth were they thinking to act without ANY evidence? It's insane not to have investigated first.

At first I thought maybe the story might have been a little exaggerated, but it appears Amazon has acknowledged it...

"We work hard to provide customers with a great experience while also ensuring drivers who deliver Amazon packages feel safe. In this case, we learned through our investigation that the customer did not act inappropriately, and we’re working directly with the customer to resolve their concerns while also looking at ways to prevent a similar situation from happening again" Amazon spokesperson Simone Griffin told the Daily Caller in a statement

A Google search found that quote - The source isn't a place I would normally trust for unbiased news but I assume they wouldn't lie about receiving an official Amazon statement on the matter. The whole incident has been very poorly handled in my opinion.

 

[DominikHoffmann]

Thinking about it some more, most of my smart switches are actually Lutron Caséta switches. They are designed to work even, when the internet goes down, simply because they actually work as physical switches with physical user interfaces mounted in an electrical box, in place of a “dumb” toggle switch.

I might be in trouble with my garage door, however. One of my vehicles is too old to be able to be programmed to open and close my garage door. I use “Hey Siri, open the garage door,” instead.

 

[Xenden]

The whole incident has been very poorly handled in my opinion.

This is beyond handling a situation poorly. Amazon took the word of an employee and went straight to DEFCON 1.

This needs to be illegal. If you buy into a platform, you should never have to worry about you you say disabling access.

This would be like saying something bad about a bicyclist and Ford locking you out of your car.

 

[MacMan2013]

My understanding is that Siri requests are sent using a random code not your Apple ID. So it is difficult to see how Siri requests could be blocked. I suppose subscriptions to Apple Music/TV etc could be terminated, but I doubt Apple would do that anyway. They actually seem to care about their customers, which is probably one reason we all love to buy more Apple stuff.