14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has confirmed the privacy bug discovered the other day by Brazilian site Mac Magazine in its latest iOS mobile operating system and said that it would address the issue in a future software update.
On Wednesday, editors of the Brazilian website Mac Magazine have publicly disclosed a privacy bug in Apple's iOS mobile operating system that caused the Siri virtual personal assistant to read out received notifications even if you set them to remain hidden when the device is locked.
In iOS 11, the latest version of Apple's mobile operating system for supported iPhone and iPad devices, you can go into Settings -> Notifications -> Show Previews and choose between three settings, including Always, When Unlocked, or Never. If you select "When Unlocked," you'll see that you've received notifications from an app but the content won't be shown.
It turns out that if you invoke Siri and ask it to read your notifications, it will read them all out loud, allowing anyone who wants to intercept your private communication to do so without even unlocking your device by activating Siri and asking it to read the notifications.
Apple says it will fix the privacy bug in a future update
Apple has confirmed the privacy bug in its iOS mobile operating system to MacRumors and promised that it would fix the issue in a future software update, without mentioning which update will that be. Therefore, we can only hope the bug will be gone in the soon-to-be-released iOS 11.3 software update.
Meanwhile, to protect your privacy, you can either set the notifications not to be displayed on the lock screen (Settings -> Notifications -> Show Previews -> Never) or disable Siri from being activated by pressing on the Home button when the device is locked by toggling the Settings -> Siri & Search -> Allow Siri When Locked and/or Press Home for Siri options.