Apple will allow users to opt-out of Siri sharing in iOS 13.2, according to the latest beta.
The latest iOS 13.2 beta two introduces a new option on the iPhone and iPad, allowing users to delete any Siri or Dictation history from their devices as well as opt-out of sharing their audio recordings with Apple for training and quality evaluation purposes.
Over the summer, media websites revealed that Apple had been hiring contractors to listen to Siri recordings to determine whether its responses were accurate and reliable.
The idea is that Apple can learn from its mistakes using anonymized data and make changes to future versions of Siri to improve its smart assistant for everyday users, but some weren’t happy and wanted an option to turn off that voice recording sharing with Apple.
According to The Guardian, employees who had been working on Siri recording screening had witnessed confidential details; the report also criticized Apple for not making it clear that these recordings were being sent to Apple and shared with real humans for improvements.
Apple announced it would suspend its Siri program following the report, telling users that it would introduce an opt-out feature in a coming version of iOS 13.
In iOS 13.2, the company states: “Help Improve Siri and Dictation by allowing Apple to store and review audio of your Siri and Dictation interactions on this iPhone and on any connected Apple Watch or HomePod. You can change this later in the settings for each device. This data is not associated with your Apple ID, and will only be stored for a limited period.”
In Privacy, users can now turn off this feature manually.
“Delete Siri & Dictation interactions currently associated with this iPhone from Apple servers. Data that has been sampled to help improve Siri and Dictation is no longer associated with this iPhone and will not be deleted,” the text says in the Settings menu.
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