Recently, Amazon released a privacy feature that lets users tell Alexa to delete the recent voice recordings. Read on to know more about this interesting feature…
Through your voice command, Alexa can now delete your recorded voice commands. Amazon recently announced new ways for Alexa users to delete recordings of voice commands which they have made on Echo speakers and other devices that use the digital assistant. Amazon says new commands like “Alexa, delete everything I said today” and future options like “Alexa, delete what I just said,” will allow users to erase records of recent interactions with the voice assistant. The recent features don’t thoroughly address every privacy concerns, but they do start to make deleting voice data a bit easier. Amazon hasn’t said whether it’ll make more thorough deletion voice commands, such as commands to delete all data or the past week or month of data.
Prior to the recent announcement, Amazon did offer options to delete records of voice commands via the Alexa app. But the ability to do it with a simple voice command is meant to make it easier for people to control their personal data.
Privacy Concerns
The tech Industry is facing a backlash from consumers and regulators, with privacy among the chief concerns, and leaders in the market want to assure everyone that they’re listening, and not in a Big Brother sort of way.
Amazon in its market-leading smart speaker devices that collect recordings of millions of voice commands and its growing advertising business, the potential for privacy issues has risen in recent years.
The features come as Amazon faces down Alexa privacy concerns, particularly around children. Advocacy groups filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission earlier this month, alleging that Amazon’s recording practices — particularly for its Echo Dot Kids device — violate a federal law that protects data from children under 13. The group complained that Amazon “fails to clearly explain how to delete information collected about children.”
Addressing Privacy Concerns
Amazon is stepping up its privacy options for its voice assistant and digital brain Alexa, as tech giants look to give users more control over data to assuage widespread privacy concerns.
The new features follow recent revelations about how Amazon’s voice assistant works behind the scenes. Amazon confirmed last month that it has teams of humans reviewing some of the millions of utterances people make to their smart speakers. However, Amazon said at the time that these teams primarily exist to make Alexa smarter, and they annotate a small percentage of clips to strengthen Alexa’s ability to recognize speech and understand commands.
In addition to the new voice commands, Amazon is also launching an “Alexa Privacy Hub” that’s supposed to offer an easy way to learn about how Alexa works and find privacy controls. The hub is fairly bare-bones, but it does offer a relatively quick way to find a link to delete voice recordings.
The new Alexa Privacy Hub gives users a central place on the web to manage settings and privacy, including the ability to erase all voice recordings and commands for specific time periods or all of a user’s history. The new privacy features were unveiled as part of the announcement of the latest Echo Show device, which also includes a built-in shutter to cover the camera.
