What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts

 

Some people have expressed concern about what the new Dragon Dictation for the iPhone application does with your contact information. As you may have experienced already, Dragon Dictation for the iPhone goes through your contact list on your iPhone and uploads the names to our server. We do this for a pretty simple reason: we found that people are often dictating names from their address book and expect the names to be recognized. We take this information and create an anonymous user profile for your device that understands what names are likely to dictate into a document. It's important to note that we only upload the names, not the e-mail addresses, phone numbers or any other personally identifying information from your contacts.

Even though there is no personally identifying information, we still treat all of this information with the highest privacy standards. All of our servers are located in the United States and meet the most stringent privacy and security standards. We conform to these high standards because we use the same data centers for other areas of our business where we are required to store personal information.

All of this is spelled out in our license agreement that comes with the Dragon Dictation for the iPhone application. Since most people only see that license agreement briefly when they are installing the software (and they usually can't wait to start using their software, so they don't spend 30 minutes reading a complex legal document...), we provided a link to that agreement here: http://www.nuance.com/company/privacy/.

So the bottom line is that nothing scary is happening with your data and we only use a little bit of information from your phone to help make the dictation accuracy as high as possible. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, feel free to post them here.

 

Posted 12-08-2009 4:48 PM by dragonstories2010
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Comments

Michael Belisle wrote re: What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts
on 12-08-2009 8:01 PM

You might want make it an explicit option (with default to no) to upload contact names.

dragonstories2010 wrote re: What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts
on 12-08-2009 9:30 PM

Hi Michael - that's exactly what we are working on now.  We will have an update to the app as soon as we can get it through testing...

Mike L wrote re: What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts
on 12-09-2009 4:37 AM

The agreement also mentions that it will collect speech data.  So the anonymous user profile will also include every single message dictated?  Along with my voice recorded?

Karen Zoller wrote re: What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts
on 12-09-2009 11:52 AM

I will not use this app until i have the option of uploading my contact names, esp since I cannot envision using any of them in a dicatation.  I have the full professional version for my PC and love it, but you really do need to give users an option with respect to uploading their contact names or not.

dragonstories2010 wrote re: What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts
on 12-09-2009 11:59 AM

Hi Karen,

Thanks for your comment -- we are working on an update that will make this feature optional. Stay tuned for more information about availability. Thanks for your interest.

Peter

Kishi wrote re: What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts
on 12-09-2009 12:26 PM

Is there a way, or plans to allow the user to spell out loud a word that dication often gets wrong. ie to dictate my name, I would like to be able to say something like "Hi my name is SPELL K-i-s-h-i"...and have it transcribe "Hi my name is Kishi".

Great app. Thanks

Kishi

RJ wrote re: What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts
on 12-10-2009 2:50 AM

Does the app always perform an upload every time it's launched? It seems like it does. And will you offer the option to disable this feature? I can't imagine everyone needing this app will need it to recognize names from their contact list. I'm sure you've seen all the feedback and the 1 star ratings on iTunes.

The software is good, there was just a lack of foresight regarding the backlash you're receiving. It's the mere perception of a privacy violation that's going to be ruinous to the app's reputation.

dragonstories2010 wrote re: What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts
on 12-10-2009 11:51 AM

Hi RJ -

Thanks for the feedback.  The app checks for new contacts each time and uploads only if necessary.  We only upload the names (no email or phone numbers) and only upload them to make your dictation more accurate.  We are adding an option to the app to make this an optional feature.

You are right that the perception of a privacy problem is the issue - the good news is that we have heard (loud and clear) from some users that they want this as an option and we can make a change.

Peter

JerryG wrote re: What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts
on 12-11-2009 9:07 AM

Peter thanks for your responses here.  Any estimation on a time frame for when the contact upload feature will be an optional one?

dragonstories2010 wrote re: What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts
on 12-11-2009 9:56 AM

Hi Jerry -

The update is in testing, should be available very soon.

Peter

AL wrote re: What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts
on 12-11-2009 5:46 PM

I would like to know the answer to Mike L's query, to which there was no response.  The privacy statement makes it appear that all of the material generated by use of the app may be collected by Nuance.  This would include the audio file and the transcription of every audio file.  Is this correct?

dragonstories2010 wrote re: What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts
on 12-11-2009 6:10 PM

Hi AL (and Mike L) -

Yes - we collect speech data that we can use the improve the speech recognition engine.  That is the way that speech recognition engines improve over time.  Other online systems, including Google's, use the same approach.  We have no way of identifying you by the speech data (some companies can ID the person that is speaking).

This is spelled out in the User Agreement - but we agree that we need to make this information clearer to users.

Remember that the goal is to create a fantastic product while maintaining security and privacy.  We think we have done that - but you have the right to vote by using the product - or not.

Thanks for asking the clarifying question and we will work hard to make sure that we answer all the questions coming in.

Thanks!

Peter

Mike L wrote re: What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts
on 12-13-2009 11:51 PM

Just want to say that you and the company are doing a great job trying to clear this issue up.  I have seen and used Dragon software for the PC and it is excellent.  I will be using this application when the update comes out.  Thanks again Peter.

Warren Whitlock wrote re: What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts
on 12-20-2009 3:50 PM

I love that you have provided the upload.. even more because of the openness of you discussion of policies here

Taco wrote re: What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts
on 01-08-2010 10:35 AM

I press "Tap here to dictate" and then it comes up, I say what I want to say, then press done and it says processing for just half a second and says "Error, connection timed out"

How do I fix this???? lol

Taco wrote re: What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts
on 01-08-2010 10:45 AM

Ok, I try to send a flippin' email to help, and they ask me for a book of information before I am able to do so, very lol support this is.

Jon wrote re: What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts
on 03-02-2010 4:57 PM

Seems like a great app. It seems to only allow a certain number of words you can didtate at a time. Is there a way to dictate more. I am a writer and need to be able to have it dictate a page or two at a time

dragonstories2010 wrote re: What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts
on 03-02-2010 11:53 PM

Hi Jon -

You can dictate up to 30 seconds at a time -- and you can keep adding additional 30 second chunks of dictation.

I hope that helps

Ammar wrote re: What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts
on 05-15-2010 3:53 PM

Hi,

Can someone Please answer Tasco's question.

I have the same problem. I dictate it and it gives me the error "connection timed out"

Steve wrote re: What Dragon Dictation for the iPhone Does (and Doesn't Do) with Your Contacts
on 05-26-2011 1:50 AM

Is there not a way to say "email john doe" then say your message and have this automaticaly create an email, or text message?

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