Everything you say to the Echo will be sent to Amazon soon and you can’t opt out
As Amazon announced plans to generate an AI version of Alexa, we are concerned about user privacy. With Alexa+ rolling out to Amazon Echo devices in the next few weeks, we will be about the privacy choices that people must see more clearly in order to maximize the use of AI voice assistants and avoid bricking capabilities of already purchased devices.
In an email sent to customers today, Amazon said Echo users will no longer be able to set up their devices to process Alexa requests, so they avoid sending voice recordings to Amazon’s cloud. Amazon obviously sent emails to users and enabled “Don’t Send Voice Recording” on its echo. Starting March 28, recordings of each command that talks to Alexa who lives in Echo speakers and smart displays will be automatically sent to Amazon and processed in the cloud.
To rationalize this change, Amazon’s email said: “As we continue to expand Alexa’s capabilities, with the generation AI capability that relies on Amazon’s secure cloud’s processing power, we decided not to support this feature anymore.”
One of the most sold features of Alexa+ is its more advanced capability to identify the feature that is known as the Alexa Voice ID. To adapt to this feature, Amazon is eliminating privacy-centric features for all echo users, even those who are not interested in subscription-based versions of Alexa, or do not want to use Alexa+, but do not use its ability to recognize different sounds.
However, there are many reasons why people don’t want Amazon to receive their recordings of their personal devices. First, it is disturbing that a business group can listen to the personal requests made in your home.
Additionally, Amazon has previously made Alexa’s voice recording poorly. In 2023, Amazon agreed to record a $25 million civil penalty for the Revelation, i.e. it stores records of children’s interactions with Alexa Forever. Unless the first echo comes out for a few years, adults have not yet gained proper understanding of Amazon’s tendency to retain Alexa recordings.
If that’s not enough to stop you from sharing voice recordings with Amazon, be aware that the company allows employees to listen to Alexa voice recordings. In 2019, Bloomberg reported that Amazon employees listened to up to 1,000 audio samples during a nine-hour shift. Amazon says it allows employees to listen to Alexa voice recordings to train its speech recognition and natural language understanding systems.
Other reasons people may hesitate to use personal voice samples to trust Amazon include the previous use of Alexa voice recordings at criminal trials, which Amazon charged in 2023 with allowing “thousands of employees and contractors to watch video footage of customers’ private spaces”, according to the Federal Commerce Commission’s shot from the ring.
Save record or lose function
Amazon said in an email today that it may want to lead these issues, and by default it will delete records requested by user Alexa after processing. However, anyone with an echo device “not saving recordings” will see the voice ID feature of the device they have purchased is bricked. Voice ID enables Alexa to perform things like sharing user-specified calendar events, reminders, music, etc. Previously, Amazon had said, “If you choose not to save any voice recordings, the voice ID may not work.” As of March 28, broken voice IDs can guarantee those who don’t let Amazon store their voice recordings.
Amazon’s email says:
Amazon is forcing Echo users to make some tough decisions: Grand Amazon access recordings of everything you say about Alexa or stop using the Echo; let Amazon save voice recordings, let employees listen to their voices or lose a feature to make the next generation of Alexa more advanced and core.
However, Amazon bets that Alexa+ can dig out voice assistants from financial pits. Amazon has publicly promised to keep the free version of Alexa around, but Alexa+ is seen as Amazon’s last hope, even if Alexa stays alive and makes it profitable. Anything Amazon can do that makes people pay for Alexa priority over other Alexa users’ needs, including privacy.
This story originally appeared in ARS Technica.
