iOS 15 Bug Caused Some Users’ Siri Conversations to Be Recorded After Opting Out

Apple has revealed that it has recently fixed a bug that inadvertently led to a small portion of users having their Siri audio recordings kept and reviewed by the company.

Apple’s virtual assistant Siri was reportedly able to listen in to iPhone users’ conversations even if they had opted out of “Improve Siri and Dictation & Privacy” settings due to a bug in iOS 15.

A new report by ZDNet points out that Apple has now fixed this privacy bug in the iOS 15.2 update and will prompt iPhone users to opt-in or out of the “Improve Siri & Dictation” setting yet again with the second beta of iOS 15.4 which was released last month.

“With iOS 15.2, we turned off the Improve Siri & Dictation setting for many Siri users while we fixed a bug introduced with iOS 15,” Apple said in a statement to the site. “This bug inadvertently enabled the setting for a small portion of devices. Since identifying the bug, we stopped reviewing and are deleting audio received from all affected devices.”

The report does not highlight the number of users affected or which specific models were hit by the bug. It is also unclear whether the bug was restricted to a specific region. Interestingly, the official 15.2 changelog on Apple’s Support forum does not highlight anything related to the Siri bug-fix.

This isn’t the first time Apple’s Siri got into trouble for secretly listening to iPhone users’ interactions. Back in August 2019, Apple issued a formal apology after it was found that Apple employees were listening to conversations to improve its service.