Amazon is removing a key privacy feature from its Echo smart speakers — and Alexa+ is to blame.
On March 28, Amazon will remove the ability to have Alexa process your voice requests locally, and will start sending all of your recordings to the cloud to be processed there, rather on your Echo device itself.
The update, first reported by Ars Technica, comes from an email Amazon sent to Echo owners who had local processing enabled. In the email, Amazon states that the increased processing power required of the generative AI tools of Alexa+ necessitates the change.
What Alexa devices are impacted?
This change only affects those who have an Echo Dot (4th Gen), Echo Show 10, or Echo Show 15, as those were the only devices that supported local Alexa, and was only available to customers in the U.S. with devices set to English.
"Starting on March 28th, your voice recordings will be sent to and processed in the cloud, and they will be deleted after Alexa processes your requests," reads the email from Amazon. "Any previously saved voice recordings will also be deleted. If your voice recordings setting is updated to ‘Don’t save recordings,’ voice ID will not work and you will not be able to create a voice ID for individual users to access more personalized features."
Amazon's email also stated that it will delete every recording after it's processed, and that "Alexa voice requests are always encrypted in transit to Amazon’s secure cloud, which was designed with layers of security protections to keep customer information safe."
Currently, you can opt for Amazon to delete any voice recording immediately, but doing so also removes Alexa's ability to create voice profiles for your account, which means you won't be able to get personalized recommendations for such things as music and calendar events.
Amazon sounds off on the change
Though it's not alone among tech companies, Amazon has had issues surrounding data privacy. In 2023, it was fined $25 million for not deleting recordings of children and location data, even after it was requested to do so.
Ring, which is owned by Amazon, was also fined $5.8 million for allowing third-party contractors access to customers' videos.
"The Alexa experience is designed to protect our customers’ privacy and keep their data secure, and that’s not changing," said an Amazon spokesperson in a statement to Tom's Guide. "We’re focusing on the privacy tools and controls that our customers use most and work well with generative AI experiences that rely on the processing power of Amazon’s secure cloud.
"Customers can continue to choose from a robust set of tools and controls, including the option to not save their voice recordings at all. We’ll continue learning from customer feedback, and building privacy features on their behalf."
What about Google and Apple?
While their smart speaker offerings are much more limited than Amazon's, both Apple and Google have stated that at least some of the processing that's done for their AIs happens on-device, rather than in the cloud.
Apple in particular is taking a privacy-first approach to Apple Intelligence, though it is lagging far behind its competitors. To be sure, this is done not just for privacy, but also to speed up the responses delivered by AI.
However, the latest iPhones as well as Pixel devices have much more powerful chips than your typical Echo Dot, so it's a lot easier for Apple and Google to enable on-device processing for AI than it is for Amazon to do so on its smart speakers, all of which cost hundreds less.
If you do not want to set your voice recordings setting to ‘Don’t save recordings,’ please follow these steps before March 28th:
- Open the Alexa App on your Mobile Phone
- Go to Settings > Device Settings and select the device where this feature is enabled
- Select 'Do Not Send Voice Recordings' from the menu
- Disable the setting
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