Everything you say to your echo will soon be sent to Amazon and you can’t give up

As Amazon has announced plans for a generative AI version of AlexoWe were Concerned about consumer privacyS With Alexa+ Rolling Out yes Amazon Echo devices In the coming weeks, we get a clearer look at the privacy discounts that people will have to do to maximize the use of AI voice assistant and to avoid the functionality of the bricks of the devices already purchased.

In an email sent to customers today, Amazon said Echo users will no longer be able to set their Alexa -based processing devices at the local level and therefore avoid sending voice records to Amazon’s cloud. Amazon apparently sent the email to users with “Do not send voice records” activated on their echo. Starting on March 28, records of each command spoken with Alexa, living in echo speakers and smart displays, will automatically be sent to Amazon and processed in the cloud.

Trying to rationalize the change, Amazon’s email said: “As we continue to expand Alexa’s capabilities with generative functions of AIs that rely on the power of processing Amazon’s secure cloud, we decided not to support this feature.”

One of the most offered characteristics of Alexa+ is its more advanced ability to recognize who speaks to it, a function known as Alexa Voice ID. To adapt this feature, Amazon eliminates the ability to focus on confidentiality for all echo users, even those who are not interested in the subscription version of Alexa or want to use Alexa+, but not its ability to recognize different votes.

However, there are many reasons for people not to want Amazon to receive records of what they say on their personal device. On the one hand, the idea of ​​a conglomerate being able to listen to personal requests made in your home is just nervous.

In addition, Amazon had previously managed Alexa voice records. In 2023 Amazon agreed to Pay $ 25 million In civil penalties because of the revelation that she has kept records of children’s interactions with Alex forever. Adults also did not feel properly informed about this on Amazon Tendency to keep Alexa records Unless it was prompted until 2019, five years after the first echo was released.

If this is not enough to deter you to share voice records with Amazon, keep in mind that the company has allowed Employees to listen to Alexa Voice Recordings. In 2019, Bloomberg reported this Amazon employees listened to Up to 1000 audio samples during their nine -hour shifts. Amazon He says It allows employees to listen to Alexa Voice Recordings to train their speech recognition systems and natural language understanding systems.

Other reasons people may hesitate to trust Amazon with personal voice samples, include previous use of Alexa Voice Recordings in criminal processes and Amazon Paying an agreement In 2023, regarding claims that it allows “thousands of employees and contractors to watch video recordings on private spaces of customers”, taken from the ring cameras, according to the Federal Commercial Committee.

Save records or loss of functionality

He probably wants to overtake these problems, Amazon said in his email today that by default he will delete Alexa’s requests records of users after processing. However, anyone who has an echo set on “Don’s Save Recordings” will see a voice feature of their voice identifier on their already devices. Voice identifier Activates Alex Do things like sharing user -specific events, reminders, music and more. Amazon before has said that “if you decide not to save any voice records, the voice identifier may not work.” As of March 28, Broken Voice ID guarantees people who do not allow Amazon to store their voice records.

Amazon’s email says:

Alexa Voice requests have always been encrypted in transit to Amazon’s protective cloud, which is designed with safety protection layers to keep customer information. Customers can continue to choose from a stable set of controls by visiting the Alexa Privacy Online Management Dashboard, or will focus on more> Alexa Privacy in the Alexa app.

Amazon forces Echo users to make several difficult decisions: provide Amazon access to records of everything you say to Alexa or stop using Echo; Let Amazon keep the voice records and make employees listen to them or lose their function, a set to become more advanced and central for the next generation Alexa.

However, Amazon relies big that Alexa+ can dig a voice assistant from a pitS Amazon is publicly committed to keeping the free version of Alexa around, but Alexa+ is regarded as Amazon’s latest hope for maintaining Alexa alive and makes it profitable. Everything Amazon can do to make people pay for Alexa has an advantage over other requirements of Alexa users, including, seems to be confidential.

This story originally appeared on Ars TechnicaS