Amazon has announced that it will stop offering a privacy feature that allowed some Echo users to stop their voice recordings from being sent to Amazon’s cloud.
When Is This Change Happening?
This change will happen on March 28, 2025. The feature, called “Do Not Send Voice Recordings”, allowed certain Echo devices to process voice commands locally instead of in the cloud.
Why Is Amazon Ending This Feature?
Amazon says it is removing this feature to help expand Alexa’s new abilities using generative artificial intelligence. These advanced features need cloud processing to work properly.
How Many People Used This Feature?
The feature was very rare. It worked only on three devices:
- Echo Dot 4th generation
- Echo Show 10
- Echo Show 15
It was also only available to U.S. users with devices set to English. Amazon says that less than 0.03% of customers used this option.
What Happens to Privacy Now?
Even though this feature is going away, Amazon says users can still stop Alexa from saving their voice recordings. Anyone who used the feature will automatically be switched to the “Don’t save recordings” option after March 28.
Will Alexa Still Be Safe to Use?
Amazon says Alexa is designed to protect users’ privacy. The company claims it is focusing on the privacy tools that most people use and that work well with new AI systems that rely on Amazon’s secure cloud.
Why Does Alexa Need Cloud Processing?
The new AI-powered Alexa features need large computing power to understand complex commands and generate responses. This can only happen by sending data to the cloud instead of keeping it on the device.
What Is Amazon Saying About Privacy?
In a statement, Amazon said:
“The Alexa experience is designed to protect our customers’ privacy and keep their data secure. That is not changing. We are focusing on the privacy tools and controls that our customers use the most, and that work with generative AI experiences powered by our secure cloud.”
