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The incredible convenience of Alexa comes with a trade-off—the constant presence of a listening device inside our homes. If you use an Amazon Alexa-powered device, it’s time to take a few steps to safeguard your privacy.
1Delete Your Voice Recordings
One of the most significant privacy concerns surrounding Alexa is the storage of voice recordings.Changes to Amazon’s Alexa+ platformmean that Amazon now stores your voice interactions to improve Alexa’s accuracy and personalize your experience. Amazon removed the local voice processing opt-out, which means a record of your conversations with Alexa is kept on Amazon’s servers.
But to regain control over your voice data, you can delete these recordings.
you’re able to do the same on the Amazon website as well. On Amazon.com (or your country’s localized portal), navigate toAccounts & Listsand thenContent Library. SelectPrivacy Settingsand thenAlexa Privacy. Follow the same steps as in the Alexa app to review and delete recordings.
Deleting voice recordings regularly is a crucial step in maintaining your privacy. While it might not erase all traces of your interactions, it significantly reduces the amount of personal data stored on Amazon’s servers.
That said, it is important to note that deleting the recordings may impact Alexa’s ability to personalize your experience. you may try to find a sweet spot between retaining the voice recordings for a few months to benefit from the personalization yet not have your data saved perpetually on Amazon’s servers.
2Manage Skill Permissions
Alexa’s capabilities are expanded through “skills,” essentially voice-activated apps for Amazon Echo devices. There are more than 100,000 Alexa skills available—from controlling smart home devices to task management to even telling jokes.
While Amazon develops a number of skills, the vast majority are made by third-party developers. To function correctly, these skills often require access to certain permissions, such as your location, contacts, or calendar. However, granting excessive permissions can expose sensitive information.
Therefore, you should be selective about installing skills. Beforeinstalling a new Alexa skill, carefully review the permissions it requests. Only install skills from reputable developers and avoid those requiring unnecessary or excessive permissions. Often, a skill’s reviews can give you a good idea of how to filter dodgy skills.
And, of course, regularly audit the skills installed on your Echo and other Amazon Alexa-enabled devices. Remove those you no longer use or those that request unnecessary permissions, reducing the potential for privacy breaches.
Of course, you’re able to also do this via the Amazon website by navigating to theAlexa Privacysection.
3Mute the Microphone When Not in Use
Amazon Echo devices are designed to be always listening for the wake word—Alexa, or one of the other options that you canchange Alexa’s wake wordinto. While this enables hands-free convenience, it also means that the device is constantly monitoring your surroundings.
To address this concern, you canmute the microphone when you’re not actively using Alexa. Locate the mute button on your Echo device and press the button to mute the microphone. A red indicator light will typically illuminate to indicate that the microphone is muted. Remember to unmute the microphone when you want to use Alexa again.
When the microphone is muted, Alexa will not listen for the wake word or record any audio. It provides a physical safeguard against unintended recordings and ensures that Alexa only listens when you explicitly want it to.
While this simple step can significantly enhance your privacy, it also kills the core highlight of being an always-on virtual assistant. If you prefer the hands-on convenience, consider muting the microphone when discussing a sensitive topic or private matter.
4Disable “Help Improve Alexa”
Amazon uses your voice recordings and interactions to improve Alexa’s accuracy and develop new features. By default, this data is shared with Amazon and may even go through human review to improve the services.
If you are uncomfortable with this, you can opt out of sharing your voice recordings with Amazon.
Disabling this feature prevents Amazon from using your voice recordings to train its voice recognition and cognitive capabilities, reducing the amount of personal data shared with the company. Amazon claims that if this feature is turned off, voice recognition and new features may not work well for you—but I don’t think that’s really the case.
5Limit Personalized Advertising
Amazon uses your interactions with Alexa and other Amazon services to personalize advertising. You might see targeted ads based on your voice commands, purchases, and browsing history.
If you don’t care for personalized advertising, you can limit it—and there are two ways to go about it. On the Amazon website, navigate toAccounts & Listsand head to theAccount(or equivalent) section. Head to theAdvertising preferencespage. Or you can alternatively head toamazon.com/adprefsdirectly.
Choose theDo not show me interest-based ads provided by Amazonoption and hitSubmit. Additionally, in theDelete your personal information from our ad systemssection, you may also choose toDelete ad datato delete your personal information from Amazon’s ad systems.
Do note that this the “Advertising preferences” experience is not consistent across locales. The screenshot above shows the experience with my Amazon US account, but my Amazon India account has a different UI, and the option to delete ad data is missing. The steps above are, therefore, indicative only.
Mind you, even after turning off this option, you may still see personalised product recommendations on Amazon unless you’ve also adjustedYour RecommendationsandYour Browsing History. Moreover, even if Amazon has expunged all your personal data, you will still see ads provided—they just will not be based on your interests.
But that’s not all. There’s an additional step for ads delivered by Alexa.
4 Reasons Amazon’s Alexa+ Is a Privacy Nightmare
Your Amazon Alexa privacy is about to undergo big changes, and you have no choice but to comply or switch.
While Amazon Echo devices powered by Alexa offer undeniable convenience, it’s essential to be mindful of the privacy implications. By implementing some guardrails proactively, you may balance Alexa’s functionalities and safeguarding your privacy.
