Everything You Say to Your Echo Will Soon Be Sent to Amazon, and You Can’t Opt Out

Since Amazon announced plans to version Ai Tolide from Alexa, we have been concerned about the user privacy. With Alexa+ to the Amazon Echo devices in the coming weeks, we get a clearer vision of the privacy concessions that people will have to make to increase the use of artificial intelligence auxiliary assistant and avoid brick functions for the already collected devices.

In an email sent to customers today, Amazon said that Echo users will not be able to set their devices to handle Alexa requests locally, thus avoiding sending audio recordings to Amazon’s Cloud. Amazon clearly sent the email to users with enabling “Don’t send audio recordings” on their echo. Starting March 28, records of each matter will be sent to Alexa Living in Echo speakers and smart screens automatically to Amazon and processing it in the cloud.

In an attempt to rationalize the change, an Amazon email said: “As we continue to expand the Alexa capabilities through the gynecological features that depend on the treatment strength of the Amazon cloud, we decided not to support this feature.”

One of the most marketed features in Alexa+ is its most advanced ability to get to know who is talking to it, a feature known as Alexa Voice ID. To accommodate this feature, Amazon cancels the capacity that focuses on privacy for all Echo users, even those who do not care about the subscription -based version of Alexa or want to use Alexa+ but not its ability to identify different sounds.

However, there are many reasons why people do not want to get records of what they say to their personal device. For one of them, the idea of ​​a bloc is able to listen to the personal requests submitted in your home is, simply, annoying.

Moreover, Amazon previously released Alexa Voice Records. In 2023, Amazon agreed to pay 25 million dollars of civil sanctions on revelation as storing children’s interactions with Alexa Forever. Adults also did not feel that they were properly aware of Amazon’s tendency to keep Alexa records unless it was asked not until 2019 – after years after the first echo appeared.

If this is not enough to deter you from sharing audio recordings with Amazon, note that the company allowed employees to listen to Alexa audio recordings. In 2019, Bloomberg reported that Amazon staff listened to up to 1000 sound samples during nine -hour attacks. Amazon says it allows employees to listen to Alexa Voice records to train speech recognition systems and natural language understanding systems.

Another reasons that people may hesitate to trust Amazon through personal sound samples, including the previous use of Alexa audio recordings in criminal trials and Amazon paying a settlement in 2023 with regard to claims that they allowed “thousands of employees and contractors to watch video records of the special spaces of customers” taken from the episode cameras, according to the Federal Trade Committee.

Save recordings or lose their jobs

It is possible that you look forward to applying for these concerns, the Amazon said in its email today that it will be deleted, the Alexa requests for users will be deleted after processing. However, anyone with his Echo device on “not saving recordings” will see the sound ID that has already been purchased with the audio ID. The Alexa identified voice enables things like sharing the user -specific calendar events, reminder, music and more. Previously, Amazon said that “if you choose not to save any audio recordings, the sound identifier may not work.” As of March 28, Broken Voice ID is a guarantee of people who do not allow Amazon to store their audio recordings.

The Amazon Post says:

Alexa’s vocal requests are always encrypted to cross into Cloud Secure Secure, which are designed with layers of safety protection to maintain safe customer information. Customers can continue to choose from a group of controls by visiting the Alexa Information Panel for online privacy or moving to more> Alexa privacy in Alexa application.

Amazon forced Echo users to make two difficult decisions: Amazon grant access to records of everything you say to Alexa or stop using echo; Let Amazon save the audio recordings and ask the employees to listen to them or lose an advantage to become more advanced and central to the next generation of Alexa.

However, Amazon bets that Alexa+ can dig the audio assistant from a financial hole. Amazon publicly adhered to maintaining the free version of Alexa around it, but Alexa+ is seen as the last Amazon hope to keep Alexa alive and make it profitable. Anything that Amazon can do to make people pay the price of Alexa for him as a precedence over the demands of the other Alexa user, including, apparently, privacy.

This story was originally appeared on Art Technica.