Big Amazon Echo Privacy Change You Need To Know About

If you've ever suspected that your Amazon Echo device is listening to or recording your conversations, you're right!

Later this month, the smart speaker platform will make changes impacting your privacy.

Amazon Echo Changes

On March 28th, Amazon will roll out a new feature called Amazon Voice ID.

This feature will allow Echo devices to recognize different users.

While this change does enable personalized access to calendars, music, libraries, and reminders, the trade-off is security.

To enable this feature, all audio interactions with your Amazon Echo device will now be sent directly to Amazon for processing.

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Amazon Echo Privacy Implications

It's no secret that Amazon has pushed for more artificial intelligence capabilities.

However, this new feature raises privacy concerns among users.

According to an update from Amazon, the setting that allows you to not share recordings directly with Amazon will be removed.

Amazon Privacy Concerns

This is not the first time privacy concerns have circulated Amazon.

In 2019, Amazon employees were accused of reviewing thousands of voice recordings to improve speech recognition.

In addition, the company faced multiple fines in 2023, including a $30 million penalty for storing children's voices and allowing employees to access ring camera footage.

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Amazon Echo Users

The upcoming shift to cloud processing, no doubt raises security and privacy concerns.

Amazon does claim that they will delete the recordings after they are processed.

Amazon has also hinted at future subscription models for Alexa.

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