Alexa Voice Recordings Of Some Echo Device Users Will Be Sent To Amazon
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Amazon has announced that it will scrap a setting that currently allows some Amazon Echo users to store and process their Alexa requests locally. In other words, all Alexa voice recordings of some Echo device users will be sent to Amazon’s cloud for analysis.
Some Amazon Echo device users won’t be able to locally store Alexa voice recordings
The setting in question is the “Do Not Send Voice Recordings.” Currently, this setting supports on-device voice recordings storage. However, Amazon will remove this option starting March 28. Even simple voice commands, like turning on your living room’s light, or playing your favorite playlist, will go directly to Amazon’s cloud for analysis.
As noted by TechRadar, this change affects users of the Echo (4th Gen), Echo Show 15, and Echo Show 10 who have enabled this setting. They also received an email about the upcoming change on March 15. A part of the email we’ve attached at the end of this piece reads, “As we continue to expand Alexa’s capabilities with generative AI features that rely on the processing power of Amazon’s secure cloud, we have decided to no longer support this feature.”
For the uninitiated, the expansion mentioned by Amazon in the email is none other than Alexa+. It is an advanced version of the Amazon Alexa assistant that acts more like a human. Similar to Google’s AI assistant, Alexa+ can search and summarize documents or emails, and look up information from the web.
If you are an Amazon Prime subscriber, the supercharged assistant will be free to use. The non-Prime members who want to access Alexa+ will have to pay $19.99 per month. However, if you opt out of sending voice recordings to Amazon, you won’t be able to access some AI-powered features.
Users are concerned by the upcoming change
Here, the problem is that Amazon’s track record with the collection of user data isn’t very great. The company previously faced scrutiny for failing to disclose that it stored voice recordings of children’s conversations with Alexa.
As expected, Amazon Echo users are fuming about the upcoming change, as they think this would compromise their privacy. In a Reddit post by user Apple2T4ch, many shared their frustration, with one user even saying, “Great opportunity to discontinue Amazon Alexa!”
