Amazon's Alex has removed a setting that let owners opt out of sending voice commands to the company.
Now, Alexa is listening to everything around it and storing those conversations potentially indefinitely on Amazon's servers, The Washington Post reports.
"You don’t know when humans are listening to your recordings saved in Amazon’s cloud," Washington Post columnist Shira Ovide writes. "You don’t know whether Amazon is accidentally sending your voice recordings to a stranger or saving what you say even if you don’t trigger Alexa with a 'wake' word."
The risks to privacy, and potential exposure through hacking or data breaches, are big.
“The more you save today, the more that can be breached tomorrow,” said Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a privacy advocacy group, said to The Washington Post. “Whether you’re worried about hackers breaking in or the government forcing its way in, you can protect yourself down the road by disabling data retention now.”
Follow these steps to stop Alexa from storing recordings
- Open the Alexa phone app.
- Open Settings.
- Head to "Alexa Privacy" and "Manage Your Alexa Data."
- Select "Don't save recordings."
What else can be done to improve privacy with Alexa?
If you are still concerned about Alexa listening in, consider moving the device to less intimate areas of the home.
Another option is to unplug your Alexa device when you aren't using it.
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