Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by edude03 18 days ago
It's not open weight, but the point is to be an on device (and thus local, privacy preserving) option. The article mentions that as the caveat

> What this means if you just want good transcription

> If you are on a current iPhone or Mac, the best on-device transcription engine for English is already in the operating system, and the private option is no longer the compromise option
2 comments
1vuio0pswjnm7 18 days ago
If already have current Mac or iPhone, and thereby implictly "trust Apple", then why would one need a "a local, privacy-preserving" option

If trust Apple, then no need for privacy from Apple

link
drnick1 18 days ago
> It's not open weight, but the point is to be an on device (and thus local, privacy preserving) option.

How can you be sure this isn't leaking data or metadata to Apple? Can Apple really be trusted?

link
edude03 18 days ago
The article states:

> If you are on a current iPhone or Mac

Presumably if you don't trust apple you wouldn't purchase their products and even if you were for example forced to use it via work or something you wouldn't use this feature ... so it doesn't really change the calculus as presented by this article - IF you ALREADY HAVE a MODERN Mac (and trust apple) this is your best option

link
madeofpalk 18 days ago
Test it! Does it make network requests? Unplug the internet and see if it still works!
link
drnick1 18 days ago
You are being naive. An Apple device makes dozens of network requests every minute or so to Apple. It is neigh on impossible to verify what is being requested or sent. Also unplugging the Internet and verifying that something still works does not mean the app won't phone home behind your back when it can. These things are designed to fail silently.
link
Danox 18 days ago
Download use Little Snitch or

https://alternativeto.net/software/little-snitch/

https://www.g2.com/products/little-snitch/competitors/altern...

There are many alternatives for trying to find out what’s going on. If you don’t want to bother, and most people don’t, well, what else is there to say?

It is generally a good idea to know what software is phoning home, if you can pinpoint it.

If you have any software recommendations, I’d be happy to know.

link
drnick1 18 days ago
It's more complex than that. LittleSnitch or other application firewalls won't help when programs like package managers legitimately need to access the Internet. And figuring what what is being sent would require decrypting the traffic. There is no easy way to figure out if Apple or some rogue app is siphoning off your home directory.
link
madeofpalk 18 days ago
This is Hacker News. Computers are knowable, tractable things. It is trivial to know if a process is making network requests.
link
drnick1 18 days ago
It's definitely not trivial to figure out what for, and what is being sent or received.
link