16 Mar 2025

Echo Will Report to Amazon Everything Users Say Starting 28 March 2025

by Bonnie | | 0

People with “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” set on their Echo device received email from Amazon saying that starting 28 March 2025, everything “command spoken” to Alexa in Echo speakers and smart displays will be sent to Amazon for processing.

Of course to distinguish what is “command spoken,” practically all the audio will go to Amazon.

Amazon has a history of mishandling Alexa recordings. In 2023 Amazon was hit with $25 million in civil penalties because it was keeping recordings of children essentially forever. Amazon has also allowed its employees to listen to Alexa recordings and watch Ring camera video of private spaces at customers’ homes.

Amazon says that by default, it will delete Alexa commands after they are processed. However, as of 28 March, users who set their Echo to “Don’t save recordings” will not have access to the Voice ID feature in Alexa that distinguishes between the voices of different users.

All of this is intended to boost Alexa+ over the non-subscription free Alexa service, at the expense of losing privacy at a moment when government in the USA is strongarming companies to give it whatever it wants, including access to private communications.

Click here for more details.

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