Siri is once again in the eye of controversy in recent hours after information provided by Apple and through which we have learned of an error that could have caused our interactions with her to be recorded. A priori, it does not seem like something serious that puts the privacy of users at real risk, but it is at least outstanding knowing the emphasis that Apple makes on protecting them and allowing them to be the ones who decide at all times.
A bug that was present in iOS 15
At the end of 2019, a controversy related to Apple’s assistant arose for the first time, since it became known that the company was making recordings of interactions with Siri. For this reason, the Cupertino company was obliged to offer the user the possibility of declining these recordings, always making it clear that even if they are accepted they will be totally anonymous recordings and treated simply for the improvement of the system, also preventing third parties from accessing they.
However, it is now known that with the arrival of iOS 15 in September, some iPhones experienced a bug that allowed Siri to collect those recordings even when the user had declined to do so . This is explained by ZDNet, which is the medium that has collected Apple’s statements in which they have publicly stated this problem for the first time.
The issue was partially resolved in iOS 15.2 , at which point the ability to choose whether or not to share recordings was directly removed. It was a way of buying time for the Californian company, waiting to find the exact origin of the problem in iOS and solve it definitively. Now we have been able to know that with iOS 15.4 it will be completely solved , requesting the system again the permission to share or not these recordings.
The full (translated) statement from Apple to the aforementioned medium was as follows:
“With iOS 15.2, we disabled the Enhance Siri and Dictation setting for many Siri users while fixing a bug introduced with iOS 15. This bug inadvertently enabled the setting for a small portion of devices. Since we identified the bug, we stopped reviewing and are removing received audio from all affected devices.”
Why hasn’t this bug been known before?
The most common Siri problems are well known, since they are obvious to the user and it is he who usually reports them. However, this case goes further, since it is a very relevant privacy failure if we take into account that it is related to Apple itself.
However, and without wanting to downplay the issue, we also want to send a message of calm from ITIGIC. At the end of the day, these recordings were still anonymous and fortunately they did not have any relationship with third parties, nor are they linked to possible tracking for commercial purposes or anything similar. In any case, we fully understand the anger that it can generate, since in the end we were granted a power of decision that, even temporarily, could have been in vain.
