iOS 15.4 Beta 2 Fixes Bug That Caused Some iPhones to Record Siri Interactions Even When Users Opted Out

The second beta of iOS 15.4 addresses an iOS 15 bug that was allowing the iPhone to upload some Siri recordings to Apple even when users had previously opted out of doing so, Apple said in a statement to ZDNet.

improve siri dictation
Recordings were mistakenly kept for some users who disabled the option to share their ‌Siri‌ voice interactions or dictation with Apple for the purpose of improving the voice assistant. Apple told ZDNet that it turned off the setting for "many" ‌Siri‌ users in iOS 15.2, but iOS 15.4 apparently fixes the issue.

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. 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.

Apple said that when the bug was initially identified, it stopped reviewing the audio from affected devices and deleted the accidental recordings, but there is no word on why the company did not inform users of this issue when it was first discovered or when the setting was disabled in iOS 15.2.

There is no word on how many recordings Apple accidentally collected nor who was affected.

When updating to iOS 15.4 beta 2, there is a setup screen that asks users to choose whether to Improve ‌Siri‌ & Dictation by sending Apple recordings. Opting out is meant to prevent Apple from collecting and reviewing recordings of ‌Siri‌ interactions.

Apple first introduced the toggle to disable ‌Siri‌ recordings in October 2019 with the launch of iOS 13.2. It was added after it was discovered that Apple hired contractors to listen to a small percentage of anonymized ‌Siri‌ recordings to evaluate ‌Siri‌'s responses with the purpose of improving reliability.

Some of those contractors complained that they regularly heard confidential details while listening to the audio recordings. In response, Apple temporarily suspended its ‌Siri‌ grading practices and added the opt-out feature and an option to delete all previously collected ‌Siri‌ recordings.

Related Forum: iOS 15

Popular Stories

Apple Watch Ultra Night Mode Screen

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Launching Later This Year With Two Key Upgrades

Wednesday July 2, 2025 1:13 pm PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 appears to be nearly over, and it is rumored to feature both satellite connectivity and 5G support. Apple Watch Ultra's existing Night Mode In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year with "significant" new features, including satellite connectivity, which would let you...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Friday July 4, 2025 1:05 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are just over two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Latest Rumors These rumors surfaced in June and July:Apple logo repositioned: Apple's logo may have a lower position on the back of the iPhone 17 Pro models, compared to previous...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Max Battery Capacity Leaked

Thursday July 3, 2025 5:40 am PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature the biggest ever battery in an iPhone, according to the Weibo leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post, the leaker listed the battery capacities of the iPhone 11 Pro Max through to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and added that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature a battery capacity of 5,000mAh: iPhone 11 Pro Max: 3,969mAh iPhone 12 Pro Max: 3,687mAh...
iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Magsafe

iPhone 17 Pro's New MagSafe Design Revealed in Leaked Photo

Wednesday July 2, 2025 8:37 am PDT by
The upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are rumored to have a slightly different MagSafe magnet layout compared to existing iPhone models, and a leaked photo has offered a closer look at the supposed new design. The leaker Majin Bu today shared a photo of alleged MagSafe magnet arrays for third-party iPhone 17 Pro cases. On existing iPhone models with MagSafe, the magnets form a...
airpods pro 2

AirPods Pro 3 to Help Maintain Apple's Place in Earbud Market Amid Increasing Low-Cost Competition

Thursday July 3, 2025 7:25 am PDT by
Apple's position as the dominant force in the global true wireless stereo (TWS) earbud market is expected to continue through 2025, according to Counterpoint Research. The forecast outlines a 3% year-over-year increase in global TWS unit shipments for 2025, signaling a transition from rapid growth to a more mature phase for the category. While Apple is set to remain the leading brand by...
Wi Fi WiFi General Feature

iOS 26 Adds a Useful New Wi-Fi Feature to Your iPhone

Wednesday July 2, 2025 6:36 am PDT by
iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 add a smaller yet useful Wi-Fi feature to iPhones and iPads. As spotted by Creative Strategies analyst Max Weinbach, sign-in details for captive Wi-Fi networks are now synced across iPhones and iPads running iOS 26 and iPadOS 26. For example, while Weinbach was staying at a Hilton hotel, his iPhone prompted him to fill in Wi-Fi details from his iPad that was already...
iOS 18

Apple Releases Second iOS 18.6 Public Beta

Tuesday July 1, 2025 10:19 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 updates to public beta testers, with the betas coming just a day after Apple provided the betas to developers. Apple has also released a second beta of macOS Sequoia 15.6. Testers who have signed up for beta updates through Apple's beta site can download iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 from the Settings app on a compatible...

Top Rated Comments

canadianreader Avatar
45 months ago

Waiting for the obligatory 500 comments connecting this to surveillance and CSAM ?
You'd never know how many other unfixed bugs that are floating around. Think camera and mic bugs or screen recording bugs etc.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
45 months ago
For the time being, I'm not trusting Siri. It has lost my trust.

Siri is on time-out. :confused:
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jamison7 Avatar
45 months ago
Siri, tell the CCP I said I'm sorry.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pdaholic Avatar
45 months ago
Don’t worry everybody…even if Siri was recording us, there’s about a 90% chance she has no idea what we were saying.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
coolfactor Avatar
45 months ago

No, but such heavy bugs should be fined with 10% of the worldwide yearly revenue, and they would start to pay more attention before releasing crap that insults users privacy. Yes, these kind of bugs shows up too often with Apple, very shady.

At least they ditched the “What’s on your iPhone, stay’s on your iPhone!“ campaign.
Well written! By someone that has NO idea how complex software is. ? Even when something is working perfectly in one scenario, it can misbehave unexpectedly in another scenario. Testing every possible scenario is humanly impossible. This is why bugs are quite often discovered in the real world (aka. after the public release).

I'm a software engineer and see this all the time. End users manage to reveal bugs that were completely unimaginable during development and internal testing. What really matters is how Apple responds to incidents. Transparency is key.

What is ironic about this is that so many people complain about Siri not understanding their commands, and yet how many of them disable Apple's ability to review and improve that process by opting out? ?
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Wildkraut Avatar
45 months ago

Waiting for the obligatory 500 comments connecting this to surveillance and CSAM ?
No, but such heavy bugs should be fined with 10% of the worldwide yearly revenue, and they would start to pay more attention before releasing crap that insults users privacy. Yes, these kind of bugs shows up too often with Apple, very shady.

At least they ditched the “What’s on your iPhone, stay’s on your iPhone!“ campaign.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)