Devices still ready to listen in on you
Every person who brings a new Echo speaker from Amazon into their home is recorded automatically every time they utter the “Alexa” wake word.
That is, unless they mute the microphone on the device. Or diligently go to the Alexa smartphone app, to delete the recordings manually.
Amazon could offer the option of not recording us, but it doesn’t. And it will tell you how important the recordings are to “improve” the Alexa experience.
Why is this really such a big deal to Amazon, Google and Apple, and why do the companies make it so hard to stop them from monitoring?
Amazon seems to do everything in its power to stop you from deleting the recordings via the Alexa smartphone app in the privacy section.
“Voice recordings are used to improve the accuracy of your interactions with Alexa,” the company said. “Deleting voice recordings associated with your account may degrade your experience.”
Amazon does offer two very minor voice commands to erase the audio, by saying, “Alexa, delete what I just said,” or “Delete everything I said today,” but Amazon will still have transcripts from at least three months of your recordings unless you go in and manually get rid of them.
Once you do that, Amazon urges you to reconsider.
“Deleting your voice recordings may degrade your experience ... are you sure you want to proceed?” Amazon gives you the option of automatic deletion, but only for every three months or 18 months.
“We don’t keep data for data’s sake,” Amazon senior Vice President Dave Limp said. “We’re very convicted that by keeping this data ... it improves the service materially.”
Google Assistant goes beyond the Home speaker line to be an integral part of the Android smartphone platform and a feature on many devices from the Nest thermostat to Lenovo smart displays, the recordings go way beyond just using the “Hey, Google” wake word.
Google manually tracks every search you make, via your typewritten keyboard clicks, as well as every word uttered into many Google apps and even Google.com for voice commands.
So when we opened the Google Assistant app on the iPhone this week, and said, “We are told that Google only records you if you first use the wake word. Then how to explain this, huh?” every word was recorded and stored. We played it back and listened.
And continued on the Google app on an Android Pixel phone and Google.com on an Apple MacBook Pro. The results didn’t change. We were recorded every time.
Like Amazon, Google invites you to delete your recordings and keystrokes manually, or automatically every 3 or 18 months.
Google advises why it wants to record you.
“The activity that you keep can improve your experience anywhere you use your Google Account,” the company said.
“What you search, read and watch can work together to help you get things done faster, discover new content and pick up where you left off.”