Gadgetory

having Siri in your car does not make you a safer driver I'm Bridget Carey and this is your cnet update the next time you get behind the wheel you may want to think twice about using Siri to dictate an email a new study shows that using a hands-free voice system in your car isn't a cure for distracted driving in fact it may increase distraction an Apple Siri assistant was the worst offender of all the systems tested triple-a strapped various monitors and sensors on drivers to measure reaction time when using different voice control systems and the study confirmed what many people already suspected trying to get your car to actually understand your voice commands can be a distraction the results found that using your voice to dictate texts and emails is more distracting than just listening to the playback of messages different car voice systems were ranked on a one-to-five scale with five being the worst although apples car play isn't widely available yet the researchers tested siri in the car and found it to be the most distracting system ranking it out of four right behind it was the Chevrolet MyLink at 3.7 and Ford SYNC and Ford touch rated a three the least distracting system tested was Toyota's and tuned triple-a says it didn't matter how natural or computerized the voice sounded that didn't make a difference what does make a difference is how easy it is to use and the accuracy of the dictation of course it goes without saying that looking down at a phone and typing is the worst thing you can do while driving but don't let these voice systems give you a false sense of safety it's still distracting to dictate when you have to review it to correct errors in other news Microsoft and thirteen other tech companies have made a promise to protect student privacy and not sell student data to advertisers a washington DC group crafted the student privacy pledge student privacy is important as schools quickly adopt new tech in the classroom it's actually pretty easy for a program to track exactly how a student is learning what keys they type or how fast are getting through the chapter the pledge doesn't stop a company from collecting data rather the companies that sign it just promise to make clear what is being collected and not sell it my soft and others are likely motivated to do this voluntarily so they can avoid more government regulations California just signed a law preventing companies from selling data on students in K through 12 and before I and one quick update in the world of streaming video the redbox instant video service has been shut down the netflix rival was developed in partnership with verizon last year but it didn't take off and customers will be getting refunds that's your tech news update you can get more details at cnet com from our studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey