Amazon Echo changes terms of voice usage
Amazon Echo is a series of client devices for the Amazon Alexa voice control platform for connected smart homes. Echo products have long offered the option to disable cloud voice analysis and perform processing on-device, in addition to a separate option that theoretically prevents the company from saving voice recordings. However, in March of 2025, the company sent an email to users with this option on that disables the first option and only leaves the second, citing the need to train generative AI. [1]
Background
Alexa as a service is based around an edge client + cloud service model where a physical device acts as a conduit between voice and the cloud. This raises substantial privacy concerns as it is, because the lack of open source means that no one actually knows whether privacy settings are respected. However, much like Apple, Amazon assured customers through its settings interface that enabling the "Do Not Send Voice Recordings" setting would utilize exclusively local processing, sending your data to the cloud only "for features that require the transmission of audio, such as when you make a call or send a message or announcement via Alexa."[2] Local processing was available as a server on the Echo (4th Gen), Echo Show 10, and Echo Show 15, and could be utilized by lower power or older devices as clients[2].
From archival analysis of the Alexa FAQ page, it can be estimated that this feature was introduced in early to mid 2022, given the first available archived copy of the page was in September 2022. As of writing, this page still includes this feature despite its imminent removal[3]. This likely means that the Echo (4th Gen) was not launched with this feature, as it was launched 10/22/2020[4], with the Echo Show 10 following not long after on 2/25/2021[5]. However, the Echo Show 15 (2023) and Echo Show 15 (2024) were both launched since, as implied by their names, and even the former was announced after this feature was unveiled[6].
Removal of the Do Not Send Voice Feature
On March 14, 2025 (unknown if this notice rolled out over multiple days), Amazon sent an email with the subject "Upcoming change to your Alexa Settings" to customers which had enabled the Do Not Send Voice feature. The email cites coming improvements to Alexa, including the addition of generative AI features. No alternative is given other than the already-existing "Don't save recordings" feature, which merely prohibits Amazon from keeping copies of the recordings.
Amazon claims in the email that "[t]he Alexa experience is designed to protect your privacy and keep your data secure." However, they do not appear to elaborate on this further than redirecting customers to the Alexa Privacy Hub, which cites features like the microphone toggle button and the ability to go back through already saved recordings and delete them[7].
It is worth noting that other companies like Apple that admit to sending some voice/speech data for processing at least claim to use confidential computing (read more on Wikipedia) techniques like Private Cloud Compute. While these are not fully open-source solutions, these privacy-preserving technologies are audited externally and claim to be inaccessible to employees. Amazon has, in the past, admitted some recordings "undergo anonymized human review,[8]" so it is evident these recordings are not fully autonomously processed in such a way.
Consumer response
The response to this issue has been varied--some consumers, such as many in this Reddit thread, are quite displeased with the removal of the feature, with comments like "Great opportunity to discontinue Amazon Alexa!" and "We will spy on you and you will like it." However, media outlets have circulated a claim by Amazon that only 0.03% of users used the feature[1][9], so it is likely that this will go broadly unnoticed whether it is positive or negative.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Robledo, Anthony (2025-03-17). "Amazon is removing an Echo privacy setting that keeps Alexa recordings from the company". USA Today. Archived from the original on 2025-03-19. Retrieved 2025-03-20.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Turn on Do Not Send Voice Recordings". Amazon Customer Support. Retrieved 2025-03-20.
- ↑ "Alexa and Alexa Device FAQs". Amazon Customer Support. Archived from the original on 2022-09-01. Retrieved 2025-03-20.
- ↑ Gartenberg, Chaim (2020-09-24). "Amazon redesigns the Echo with a new spherical design and a custom machine learning processor". The Verge. Archived from the original on 2024-12-12. Retrieved 2025-03-20.
- ↑ Seifert, Dan (2021-02-24). "Amazon Echo Show 10 review: Alexa's next move". The Verge. Archived from the original on 2025-03-17. Retrieved 2025-03-20.
- ↑ Tuohy, Jennifer Pattison (2022-12-16). "Amazon Echo Show 15 review: Alexa's on your wall". The Verge. Archived from the original on 2025-03-07. Retrieved 2025-03-20.
- ↑ "Alexa Privacy Hub". Amazon.com. Archived from the original on 2025-02-20. Retrieved 2025-03-20.
- ↑ Scarcella, Mike (2024-10-31). "Amazon denies duping US consumers over Alexa's recording practices". Reuters. Retrieved 2025-03-20.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Amazon ends little-used privacy feature that let Echo users opt out of sending recordings to company". The Associated Press. 2025-03-19. Retrieved 2025-03-20.
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