American e-commerce giant, Amazon is planning to remove a privacy setting on its Echo devices later this month that will allow virtually all voice requests to go to the company’s cloud.
Amazon Removing This Echo Privacy Setting
Presently, its cloud-based voice service Alexa offers an opt-in feature called “Do Not Send Voice Recordings.”
Basically this service stops audio requests from being sent to the company.
The company will end this feature effective March 28 and convert into an already existing setting called “Don’t Save Recordings,” the company informed the Echo owners via email.
Although this feature will still be there it will automatically delete voice requests as they will process to “Amazon’s secure cloud” beforehand.
It is noteworthy here that regardless of whether the “Don’t Save Recordings” feature is on or off, all Alexa requests will be processed to the cloud, according to Amazon.
While giving a statement in the media, Amazon spokesperson said, “The Alexa experience is designed to protect our customers’ privacy and keep their data secure, and that’s not changing.”
Adding, “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.”
For the users, if this setting is on will also no longer be able to use voice ID, a feature that allows Alexa to recognize their voice, unlike the current version.
How Does This Affect?
So far, less than 0.03% of Echo owners have opted to use the “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” feature, Amazon said.
This feature has been available to U.S. customers with services set to English through the Echo Dot (4th Gen), Echo Show 10 and Echo Show 15 devices, according to Amazon.
Notably, this feature is only applicable to Alexa voice requests.
Echo devices have previously processed sounds to the cloud when the wake word is detected, the device records the audio, processes it in the cloud (on Amazon’s servers), and then responds to the user’s query or command.
In case the users have the setting enabled by March 28, they will automatically have the updated “Don’t Save Recordings” setting that prevents access to voice ID.
With the help of the voice ID feature, it allows Alexa to learn a user’s voice.
In case a user wants to continue using voice ID while having the “Don’t Save Recordings” setting on, Amazon stated that they can have their recordings deleted every couple of months.
These changes in updates caused some angry responses in social media as they took to social media to voice their concerns over the privacy change.
Similarly, some Reddit users argued that the company is changing the terms of the agreement after the sale of the Echo device.
One such user said, “I don’t understand how anyone could buy and support this product? I assume it has been doing this since day one.”
“So glad I jumped ship away from Echo half a decade ago,” another added.
The end of the feature is meant to “help their AI development, which seems to really be about keeping their stock price up. At your expense,” wrote Facebook user, John Coate.
One of the X users wrote, “You may want to get rid of your Amazon Echo. Apparently, you can’t opt out of this.”
