As Amazon announces plans to generate AI version Alexa,we are Pay attention to user privacy. and Alexa+ launches arrive Amazon Echo Device Over the next few weeks, we offer a clearer view of the privacy offers people will have to maximize the use of AI voice assistants and avoid bricking capabilities of already purchased devices.
In an email sent to customers today, Amazon said Echo users will no longer be able to set up their devices to process Alexa requests, so they avoid sending voice recordings to Amazon’s cloud. Amazon obviously sent emails to users and enabled “Don’t Send Voice Recording” on its echo. Starting March 28, recordings of each command that talks to Alexa who lives in Echo speakers and smart displays will be automatically sent to Amazon and processed in the cloud.
To rationalize this change, Amazon’s email said: “As we continue to expand Alexa’s capabilities, with the generation AI capability that relies on Amazon’s secure cloud’s processing power, we decided not to support this feature anymore.”
One of the most sold features of Alexa+ is its more advanced capability to identify the feature that is known as the Alexa Voice ID. To adapt to this feature, Amazon is eliminating privacy-centric features for all echo users, even those who are not interested in subscription-based versions of Alexa, or do not want to use Alexa+, but do not use its ability to recognize different sounds.
However, there are many reasons why people don’t want Amazon to receive their recordings of their personal devices. First, it is disturbing that a business group can listen to the personal requests made in your home.
Additionally, Amazon has previously made Alexa’s voice recording poorly. In 2023, Amazon agrees Pay $25 million In the civil penalties for Revelation, it stores records of children’s interactions with Alexa. Adults have not gotten a proper understanding of Amazon either Positive to keep Alexa recordings Unless it wasn’t prompted until 2019, a few years after the first echo appeared.
If this isn’t enough to stop you from sharing voice recordings with Amazon, please be aware that the company allows Staff listen to Alexa’s voice recordings. In 2019, Bloomberg reported Amazon employees listened During the nine-hour shift, up to 1,000 audio samples. Amazon explain It allows employees to listen to Alexa voice recordings to train their speech recognition and natural language understanding systems.
Other reasons why people may be reluctant to trust Amazon with personal voice samples include previous Alexa voice recordings In criminal trial and Amazon Payment settlement In 2023, the allegations were allowed to “thousands of employees and contractors watch video recordings from RING cameras’ private spaces”.
Save record or lose function
Amazon said in an email today that it may want to lead these issues, and by default it will delete records requested by user Alexa after processing. However, anyone with an echo device “not saving recordings” will see the voice ID feature of the device they have purchased is bricked. Voice ID Enable Alexa Share user-specified calendar events, reminders, music, etc. It used to be Amazon Already said “If you choose not to save any voice recordings, the voice ID may not work properly.” As of March 28, broken voice IDs can guarantee those who don’t let Amazon store their voice recordings.
Amazon’s email says:
Amazon is forcing Echo users to make some tough decisions: Grand Amazon access recordings of everything you say about Alexa or stop using the Echo; let Amazon save voice recordings, let employees listen to their voices or lose a feature to make the next generation of Alexa more advanced and core.
But Amazon bets Alexa+ can scoop up voice assistants from one Financial pit. Amazon has publicly promised to keep the free version of Alexa around, but Alexa+ is seen as Amazon’s last hope, even if Alexa stays alive and makes it profitable. Anything Amazon can do that makes people pay for Alexa priority over other Alexa users’ needs, including privacy.
This story originally appeared in ARS Technica.
