Privacy Concerns Rise As Alexa+ Begins Storing Voice Recordings In The Cloud

Amazon is making a major change to its Echo devices, and users won’t be able to opt out.

Starting March 28, the company will remove the “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” setting, meaning all voice commands given to Alexa will be sent to Amazon’s cloud servers for processing, as first reported by Ars Technica.

In an email to customers, Amazon explained the decision, stating: “As we continue to expand Alexa’s capabilities with generative AI features that rely on the processing power of Amazon’s secure cloud, we have decided to no longer support this feature,” reported Ars Technica.

This change is tied to the rollout of Alexa+, Amazon’s new subscription-based voice assistant.

A key selling point of Alexa+ is its improved ability to recognize different voices using Alexa Voice ID. To enable this, Amazon is eliminating the local processing option, affecting all Echo users—whether they plan to subscribe to Alexa+ or not, as noted by Ars Technica.

For privacy-conscious users, this shift is concerning. The idea that a tech giant will have access to every voice command spoken to Alexa raises alarms about surveillance and data security. Amazon’s past handling of user recordings adds to these worries.

In 2023, the company paid a $25 million fine after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found that it had stored children’s Alexa voice recordings indefinitely. Adults also weren’t properly informed that Amazon was retaining their recordings until 2019—five years after the first Echo was released.

Amazon has also previously allowed its employees to listen to voice recordings. A 2019 Bloomberg report revealed that staff members were listening to up to 1,000 Alexa recordings during nine-hour shifts to help improve the assistant’s speech recognition capabilities.

Adding to these concerts, Ars Technica previously reported that Alexa voice recordings have been used in criminal trials, and in 2023, Amazon paid another settlement after it was accused of allowing “thousands of employees and contractors to watch video recordings of customers’ private spaces” via Ring security cameras.

Additionally, studies have suggested that Amazon uses data from Alexa voice interactions to target ads, both on Echo devices and across the web, as previously noted by The Register.

To address privacy concerns, Amazon says that by default, recordings will be deleted after processing. However, Ars Technica notes that users who previously selected “Don’t save recordings” will lose access to Alexa’s Voice ID feature.

This means they won’t be able to use Alexa for personalized tasks like setting calendar reminders, playing music, or managing to-do lists.

Amazon justified the change by stating: “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,” as reported by Ars Technica.

However, this decision forces Echo users into a tough choice: accept that their voice commands will be stored by Amazon or lose key functionality.

Amazon is betting that Alexa+ will turn its struggling voice assistant into a profitable service. But for users who value privacy, this shift may make them reconsider whether Alexa belongs in their homes.