(Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Amazon Echo users are set to lose the option to store and process their Alexa requests locally, meaning all of their voice recordings will be sent to Amazon’s cloud.
After March 28, Amazon will discontinue the “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” setting on Echo devices that support on-device voice recording storage. After that, all your voice recordings will be sent to Amazon’s cloud for processing.
In a recent email sent to customers, Amazon attributed the decision to its expansion of “Alexa’s capabilities with generative AI features that rely on the processing power of Amazon’s secure cloud." That expansion is Alexa+, a supercharged version of the assistant that acts more like a human. It can search and summarize documents or emails you’ve shared or look up information. Alexa+ will be an Amazon Prime perk or $19.99 per month for non-Prime users.
However, these new Alexa+ features won’t be accessible for consumers who opt out of storing voice recordings with Amazon.
As Ars Technica notes, the email sent to customers says that if you don’t change your settings before March 28, you’ll be automatically switched to a "Don't save recordings” setting. This means voice recordings will be sent to Amazon and processed in the cloud but will then be immediately deleted. That might sound good, but Amazon says voice ID won’t work with this setting, meaning you can’t train Alexa to recognize your voice and individual settings. All previous voice recordings will also be deleted.
One user on Reddit dubbed this a “great opportunity to discontinue Amazon Alexa!”
Amazon’s record when it comes to using the data collected by Alexa isn’t exactly picture-perfect. In 2023, the tech giant was hit with a $25 million civil settlement after failing to disclose it stored recordings of children’s conversations with Alexa indefinitely. We've also seen Amazon compelled to hand over data to be used as evidence in criminal trials in various states in the US and Germany.