Amazon, in a bid to move the popular Echo Voice Command Alexa to a more secure cloud, has removed the “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” feature on its Echo devices.
In an email sent to Echo owners, Amazon explains that it is done to expand “Alexa’s capabilities with generative AI features that rely on the processing power of Amazon’s secure cloud.”
The “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” feature which was only enabled on 3 Echo devices — Echo Dot (4th Gen), Echo Show 10, and Echo Show 15 — allowed for audio recordings to be processed locally on the phone, where it stops requests from being sent to the cloud, as opposed to the processing in the cloud.
But this feature has now come to its end, and in the wake of its disabling is the new “Don’t Save Recordings” feature, where Echo users are allowed to still choose if they want their data to remain in the cloud or if it should be deleted immediately. However, there’s a difference — this feature comes with a necessary processing of audio recordings in the cloud whether a user wants it or not.
The new feature in the Echo devices allows for voice requests to go directly into the company’s clouds.
This has raised so many privacy concerns as Amazon says it is inconsequential if users switch on this feature in their settings because it will be automatically enabled as from March 28th. Automatically, Voice recordings will be processed to the cloud whether the feature is switched on in the settings or not.
According to Amazon, they felt justified in replacing the old feature with the new “Don’t Save Recordings Feature,” as it was only 0.03% of Echo users that used it in the first place.
This new feature also comes with the disabling of the Voice ID — a feature that allows Alexa to recognize users’ voice. Echo devices are “always listening” for their wake word. They record the commands, and when they hear it, they process it into the cloud to do what a user asks.
In respect to this, Amazon says that if an Echo owner wants to continue using the Voice ID feature while having the “Don’t Save Recordings” feature switched on in the settings, their recordings could be deleted every couple of months subject to the choosing of users.
Amazon claims that this new feature is added to aid an even better protection of customers’ privacy and keeping their data secure.
In a statement ade to USA Today, Amazon says, “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.”
However, Echo users still remain wary of their privacy. They’ve taken to social media apps like X (fka Twitter), Reddit, and Facebook, to express their concerns over privacy issues on Echo devices.
“You may want to get rid of your Amazon Echo. Apparently, you can’t opt out of this,” an X user wrote in response to a thread explaining the new Amazon feature.
