Apple iOS 15.4 Beta 2 released, fixes the bug that iPhone still uploads recordings after turning off "Siri & Dictation" analysis

On February 9, Apple released the latest iOS 15.4 developer preview Beta 2 update, which brought some functional improvements and fixes.

In a statement to ZDNet, Apple said iOS 15.4 Beta 2 addresses a bug in iOS 15 that allowed iPhones to upload some Siri recordings to Apple even if the user had previously opted out of the feature.

Apple previously introduced features to improve its voice assistant, but some users turned off the option to share Siri and Dictation with Apple, and these recordings were mistakenly retained. Apple said it turned off the setting for "many" Siri users and iOS 15.4 fixed the problem.

“In iOS 15.2, we turned off the Improved Siri & Dictation setting for many Siri users while fixing a bug introduced in iOS 15. This bug inadvertently enabled the setting for a small subset of devices. Since discovering this bug, we have stopped reviewing it and are removing audio received from all affected devices.”

Apple said it stopped reviewing audio from affected devices and deleted accidental recordings when it initially discovered the bug, but did not say why the company didn't notify users when it first discovered the issue or disable the setting in iOS 15.2.

There's no word yet on how many recordings Apple accidentally collected or who was affected.

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

Apple first introduced the switch to disable Siri recordings in iOS 13.2, which launched in October 2019. It was added after it was discovered that Apple hired contractors to listen to a small number of anonymized Siri recordings to assess Siri's responses, with the goal of improving reliability.

Some of those contractors complained that they often heard confidential details when listening to the recordings. In response, Apple temporarily stopped Siri's grading practice and added an opt-out feature and the option to delete all previously collected Siri recordings.