Siri recorded conversations without permission in iOS 15

Apple's virtual assistant Siri recorded and stored users' conversations for reviewing by Apple even if they opted out of the feature, according to a report from ZDNet.

The issue was caused by a bug in iOS 15 which automatically turned on the Improve Siri & Dictation setting.

Opting out should disable the feature, but Apple discovered that users who had denied Apple access to their recordings were still being recorded.

Apple told ZDNet once it discovered the flaw, it stopped reviewing recordings and deleted all of those that were collected as a result of the bug.

Initially, it disabled the feature for "many" users with the iOS 15.2 update.

"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."

In the iOS 15.4 update, which is currently in beta, the issue has been completely resolved.

The second version of this beta will present users with a notification to opt-in or out of the setting.

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