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.
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 Stories
Today marks the 10th anniversary of Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller and former iOS chief Scott Forstall introducing the iPhone 4S with an all-new voice assistant, Siri.
"For decades, technologists have teased us with this dream that you're going to be able to talk to technology and it'll do things for us," said Schiller, at a small press conference at Apple's former Infinite Loop...
Following the release of macOS Monterey 12.2 last month, some Mac users who installed the software update started to experience excessive battery drain during sleep mode, seemingly due to Bluetooth accessories frequently waking up the machines. The issue appears to affect Macs running the first beta of macOS 12.3 as well.
Many affected users found their Mac's battery life dropped from 100%...
In iOS 15.4, Apple has introduced a fifth "American" Siri voice, which can be selected from the Settings app by going to Siri & Search and then selecting Siri Voice. The new voice is the fifth option, which joins the original four American Siri voices.
The "American" voice is the only new voice that was added today for users in the United States, and there appear to have been no other...
Over the weekend, we reported on a bug in WebKit's implementation of a JavaScript API called IndexedDB that can reveal your recent browsing history and even your identity, according to browser fingerprinting service FingerprintJS.
Apple has since prepared a fix for the bug, according to a WebKit commit on GitHub, but the fix will not be available to users until Apple releases macOS Monterey, ...
Following the release of iOS 15.3.1 on February 10, Apple has stopped signing iOS 15.3, the previously available version of iOS that came out in late January. Because iOS 15.3 is no longer being signed, it is not possible to downgrade to that version of iOS if you've updated to iOS 15.3.1.
Apple routinely stops signing older versions of software updates after new releases come out in order...
A bug in iOS 15 is preventing some AirPods Pro owners from using Siri to control the Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency features, but it appears to be fixed in the iOS 15.1 beta.
As outlined on Reddit, some users who ask Siri to turn off Active Noise Cancellation or activate Transparency Mode on AirPods Pro connected to an iPhone running iOS 15 receive a "Sorry, I can't do that"...
Wednesday September 29, 2021 2:44 pm PDT by
Juli CloverWith the recent release of iOS 15, Apple appears to have made some changes to Siri functionality that have removed features relied on by low vision and blind iPhone users.
Several Siri commands that provide details on phone calls, voicemails, and sending emails no longer appear to be working. The following commands used to be functional, but have recently been removed. Do I have any...
Siri appears to have lost the ability to carry out requests to rate songs played in the Apple Music app in iOS 15 and later, based on user reports and tests conducted by MacRumors.
When listening to a song from your music library on iPhone and iPad, it used to be possible to ask Siri to "rate this song five [or whatever number] stars," and the virtual assistant would do so without fuss....
Popular Stories
The iPad will no longer be able to be used as a home hub following the launch of iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS Ventura, and the HomePod 16 software this fall, Apple confirmed today.
As discovered in iOS 16 code by MacRumors contributor Steve Moser, Apple says that the iPad will no longer be supported as a home hub. This information will be displayed in the Home app after updating to iOS 16.A home ...
CEO Tim Cook this week did an interview with China Daily, where he once again commented on on the future of augmented reality and hinted at Apple's work on an AR/VR headset. Render via designer Ian Zelbo Cook said that Apple is excited about the opportunities available with augmented reality, which is not too far off from prior comments that he's made, but he went on to say that people should ...
Apple today seeded the second betas of iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 to developers for testing purposes, and the new betas introduce new features and refine some of the changes that Apple made with the first iOS 16 release.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Lock Screen Photo Wallpaper Customization
When customizing a photo on the Lock Screen, there are two new DuoTone and...
Since the release of iOS 14.2 in 2020, the iPhone has included a built-in Music Recognition feature in Control Center powered by Shazam. And with iOS 16, and also the iOS 15.6 beta, the feature has received a small but useful upgrade.
As noted by Twitter user @someone_andrew, songs identified with Music Recognition in Control Center finally sync with the Shazam app.
It also remains...
Apple today launched its annual "Back to School" promotion for college/university students in the United States and Canada. This year's promotion offers a free Apple gift card with the purchase of an eligible Mac or iPad, rather than free AirPods like last year. Apple is also offering students 20% off AppleCare+ plans during the promotion.
Apple is offering a $150 gift card with the purchase ...
Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the updates coming two weeks after Apple unveiled the new software at WWDC and released the initial betas.
Registered developers can download the iOS and iPadOS 16 profiles from the Apple Developer Center, and once installed, the betas will be available over the air. Given...
Apple is "likely" to announce its long-rumored mixed-reality headset as soon as January 2023, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has reiterated.
Concept render based on purported leaked information by Ian Zelbo In a detailed post on Medium, Kuo explained that Apple's headset will be a "game-changer" for the augmented-reality and virtual-reality market. Describing some of the headset's...
Top Rated Comments
Siri is on time-out. :confused:
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? ?
At least they ditched the “What’s on your iPhone, stay’s on your iPhone!“ campaign.