 offers a virtual assistant: Siri for Apple users and Google Assistant for Android. This is not to mention a variety of other smart devices with voice commands including televisions, thermostats, cars and more.
But a contingent of users have been shocked to learn that teaching virtual assistants to understand human speech requires letting humans listen in from time to time.
Google recently agreed to suspend language reviews in Europe for three months, following regulatory concern and public outrage over revelations that contractors listen to audio captured by Google Assistant. The company says that such reviews are an important component of teaching its technology to understand different accents and dialects. Regulators in Germany expressed concern that the reviews included not only queries directed to Google Assistant, but also snippets of conversation the devices accidentally recorded.
A Google spokeswoman said that Google was cooperating with the Hamburg data protection authority. She also noted, “We don’t associate audio clips with user accounts during the review process, and only perform reviews for around 0.2% of all clips.” This figure is in line with a statement from David Monsees, the product manager for search at Google, following a contractor’s violation of the company’s data security policies in early July. That contractor leaked more than 1,000 recordings to Belgian news site VRT. The main point on which Google and German regulators seem to disagree is the prevalence of false positives – that is, Google Assistant recording when a user hasn’t activated it.
Google is not the only tech company to run into regulatory pearl-clutching. Apple, which has recently positioned itself as a company especially concerned with customers’ privacy, also recently acknowledged that humans analyze a small percentage of Siri requests to improve the service’s functionality. Like Google, Apple is suspending this review program for a time. (Unlike Google, however, Apple does not appear to be facing any regulatory orders connected to the practice.) Amazon, too, employs human reviewers to improve Alexa’s performance. And last year, Amazon acknowledged that one of its home speakers recorded a private conversation in error and sent it to a person on the device owner’s contact list.
Nor is it only European regulators who are concerned. In May, a coalition of privacy groups filed a complaint with U.S. regulators focused on the potential for Amazon to violate children’s privacy by recording young users’ conversations on its Echo Dot Kids devices. Lawsuits to similar effect are underway in federal court in Seattle and state court in California.
The concerns about smart speakers listening to us strike me as much ado about less than nothing. Maybe if I regularly organized drug deals in my home, I would want to unplug my Amazon Echo before the transactions took place. But for me, and for most users, this simply is not a problem. It is also worth noting that one of the stated aims of human review is to identify and cut down on accidental activations.
The benefits of speech recognition so vastly outweigh the overcaffeinated concerns as to be ludicrous. And that’s for people who like me who have no physical impairments to reading a screen or using a keyboard. For people with such limitations, smart speakers and other applications of voice recognition are life-changing. It is obvious why voice recognition is valuable to people who are blind or visually impaired, but they are not the only beneficiaries. These devices are also improving the lives of dementia patients, autistic people (especially children and teens), people with limited mobility or paralysis, and – perhaps surprisingly – people who are deaf or hard of hearing. The self-appointed privacy police seem to spare scarcely a thought for these users.
Will mistakes happen? Given enough opportunity, absolutely. Do they matter? In the big scheme of things, of course they don’t. Humanity did not abandon the wheel because people sometimes get struck by wheeled vehicles. We did not abandon knives because people sometimes cut themselves or others. And those are much more serious injuries than someone listening in for a few seconds of anything within earshot of our devices.
JBM.Specificity.Luxmanagement.JNK_.VB_.pdf. Fake it 'Til You Make It; Designer Bags Without the Fat Tag I first fell in love with Thursday Friday when I was obsessing about buying a Chanel bag that I couldn't, and still can't afford.
 It reminded me of the image below from Jak n Jil featured ages ago; the image that made us all question consumerism a little, made a laugh of our obsession with obscenely priced goodies and ironically made Chanel look a little cooler just because... The IT bag is over or so we're told but while many women are still spending on their leathers others are poking fun at the notion of such a practical item as the handbag being held up as a status symbol. If you fall into the latter school of thought but want to give a wink and a nod to your fashion counterparts then Thursday Friday is a cheeky way to do it..
What do you think?? Louis Vuitton Raised Most Non-Leather Handbag Prices, HSBC Says - The Business of Fashion. PARIS, France — Louis Vuitton, which last month raised prices by an average 12 percent in Japan, has imposed similar increases on non-leather handbags in most of its main markets since the start of the year, according to HSBC.
The trunk maker owned by Paris-based LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA lifted prices on bags such as the Speedy and NeverFull by about 10 percent in the euro region, Antoine Belge, an HSBC analyst, said today in a note to clients. Vuitton raised prices by at least 10 percent in the U.K. and U.S., and by 5 percent to 10 percent in Asian markets including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, the analyst wrote. The euro’s strength against some currencies may lead LVMH to charge more, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bernard Arnault said Jan. 31.
A $38,000 Handbag? For World's Ultra-Rich, the Cost of Accessories Can Be Astronomical - The Business of Fashion. ZURICH, Switerland — A $38,000 handbag?
For most people, it’s unthinkable. But for the richest sliver of the global population, it’s a realistic option — and buyers aren’t short of choices. In the upscale boutiques of Singapore, New York or Zurich — where Oprah Winfrey claims a sales clerk refused to show her a $38,000 bag — purses priced in the four figures are common. In fact, they’re so common that a higher level of luxury exists to set the super-rich apart from the merely affluent. Luxury Goods Retailing - International - August 2014. Welcome to Forbes. Research and Markets Adds Report Global Handbags Market Report 2013 Edition ProQuest. Burberry versus The Chavs. For a top luxury fashion company like Burberry it is the ultimate nightmare.
Their distinctive beige check, once associated with A-listers, has now become the uniform of a rather different social group: the so-called Chav. With UK sales falling, Burberry cannot afford to become a laughing stock in their own backyard. But just how does a top designer label shrug off a damaged image?
Only five years ago, Burberry was the darling of the fashion world after undergoing one of the most envied brand reinventions of recent years. "It really tapped into a sense of the early years of the millennia," says Andrea Cockram of Verdict Research. But all too quickly, the brand became a victim of its own success. Label-conscious football hooligans started to adopt the distinctive check. "It was associated with people who did bad stuff, who went wild on the terraces," says Peter York.
"Quite a lot of people thought that Burberry would be worn by the person who mugged them. " Tabloid jokes Chavalier for sale. Can China Produce A Luxury Brand? Heterogeneous mix of 330 million consumers purchasing €217 billion in luxury goods globally, finds far-reaching new Bain & Company study - Bain & Company - About. Changing Generational Shifts and Unprecedented Fragmentation Form Rise of the ‘7 New Faces of the Global Luxury Consumer' Milan, January 14, 2014 – The number of luxury consumers worldwide has more than tripled over the past twenty years, from roughly 90 million consumers in 1995 to 330 million at the end of 2013; this according to Bain & Company, the leading advisor to the worldwide luxury goods industry, in an extensive study of 10,000 luxury consumers, conducted in collaboration with Redburn Partners, Europe's largest independent equities broker, and Millward Brown, a leading consumer research agency.
Their report, "Lens on the Worldwide Luxury Consumer," was released today at a press conference in Milan. According to the report, a net total of 10 million additional consumers yearly enter the luxury market to reach an estimated 400 million luxury consumers worldwide by 2020, and an estimated 500 million luxury consumers by 2030. Global luxury consumer numbers set to soar.
Home Arts Perfect Fit: The Layering Edition
Spring cleaning? Make sure you keep these essential clothing items
By: Tamanna T., Staff Writer
Spring is the most confusing time of the year for me, because I never know when the weather will change. I constantly check the weather app before leaving my room, yet I still manage to be too hot or too cold. On some occasions I leave without an umbrella only for it to be pouring 10 minutes later. These bewildering changes make it essential to think about layering clothes, so you can stay on top of the weather chaos and adjust accordingly. As someone who has worked in the fashion retail industry for almost four years