With the release of the second beta of iOS 15.4, we will again be asked whether or not we want to share with Apple some recordings of our interactions with the Siri voice assistant and with the voice dictation function in order to improve them.
The reason could be related to the fact that, on previous versions, there was a bug that had inadvertently activated sharing on “a limited amount of iPhones”.
As reported by ZDNet, in fact, Apple has corrected a bug with iOS 15.2 that may have recorded interactions with the voice assistant Siri, regardless of the fact that the user has explicitly renounced sharing them and has always left the selector disabled in the appropriate system settings.
The bug, which appeared for the first time with iOS 15, automatically enabled the “Improve Siri and Dictation” setting in the “Privacy” menu, under “Analysis and improvements” which gives Apple the authorization “to improve Siri. and Dictation, allowing Apple to store and analyze audio from Siri and dictation interactions “when using your device.
With iOS 15.2, we turned off the Enhance Siri & Dictation setting for many Siri users and fixed a bug introduced with iOS 15. This bug inadvertently turned on the setting on a small portion of devices. Since we identified the bug, we have stopped analyzing and are deleting the audio received from all affected devices.
With the second beta of iOS 15.4, currently only available to developers, the prompt asking the user for permission to enable the “Enhance Siri and Dictation” feature will reappear. The reason could be related to the resolution of this bug in previous versions.
Apple introduced the option to enable or disable the sharing of Siri audio recordings and voice dictation in 2019, after heated discussions about the improvement program unearthed by The Guardian which also resulted in the firing of around 300 employees. At that time, the program was initially blocked and then reactivated in the form of voluntary participation.