
She said she called Amazon repeatedly until she got in touch with an engineer, who apologized profusely and thanked her for bringing the incident to the company's attention, but did not explain why the device sent the recording nor whether it was a widespread issue.

As unlikely as this string of events is, we are evaluating options to make this case even less likely.”ĭanielle said that after the person sent the recording, she and her husband unplugged each of the several Alexa devices in their house that they used to control things, such as their security system and lighting.ĭanielle said the device had not advised her that it was sending a recording of the conversation. Alexa then asked out loud, ', right?' Alexa then interpreted background conversation as 'right'. At which point, Alexa said out loud 'To whom?' At which point, the background conversation was interpreted as a name in the customers contact list. Google says this may affect some of Google Home’s personalization features, because it essentially wipes its memory.“Echo woke up due to a word in background conversation sounding like 'Alexa.' Then, the subsequent conversation was heard as a 'send message' request. Click the "All Products" drop-down menu, choose "Voice & Audio," and click delete. To do that, go to, tap the three vertical dots in the "My Activity" title bar, and select "Delete activity by" in the drop-down menu. While you're stuck with recording and logging audio snippets, you can delete saved audio clips after the fact.
#Does alexa record conversations android
Keep in mind that this doesn't just disable Google Home, it also deactivates the Assistant on Android phones. If you want to pause it anyway, visit, tap the three vertical dots on the top left of the page, select "Activity Controls," and slide the "Voice & Audio Activity" slider to the left to pause it. Whenever you say "OK Google" and ask for anything, the speaker says "Actually, there are some basic settings that need your permission first." And of course, it's referring to turning voice-recording right back on again. All these methods are meant to make your voice assistant smarter in the coming years.Īt least it's a paperweight that talks to you. Google slices and dices the audio it’s already captured, then remixes it to help train its system. Microsoft has mysterious fake apartments(!) set up to record and understand natural speech patterns. Several times a day, Amazon uses the entire stack of Alexa queries to educate its A.I. Update: But what about the bigger pool of data, the aggregated voice queries from each system’s user base? According to this Bloomberg story, Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft are using all that variety to hone these systems’ understanding of spoken language even further. And while you can delete your log of audio clips for both Alexa and Google Home, it's unclear whether the data survives on servers after you delete it from the queue in your account. Disabling recording is only an option in Google Home, and when you do it, the device basically doesn't work. The semi-good news is that you have a bit of control over whether audio clips are saved or recorded at all. Both companies say these audio databases help each system serve up personalized content and learn the intricacies of your Maine accent. For cases where spoken-word answers aren't very useful-recipes and search results, for example-Amazon and Google provide links to written content in the Alexa and Home apps.

There are user benefits to these personal audio catalogs.
#Does alexa record conversations how to
Here’s how devices like Echo and Home record your voice, why they do it, what they do with the data, and how to scrub those recordings. But recording your voice is a major part of how voice assistants work.

If you only use Chrome in “Incognito Mode,” put tape over your laptop camera, and worry about snoops sniffing your packets, a web-connected microphone in your home seems risky.

However, it’s still a reasonable concern for anyone worried about privacy. 3 Alexa will sometimes record audio of conversations, even when it shouldn't have been. Echo and Home simply continue the trend of saving a crumb trail of queries, except with snippets of your voice. However, Alexa will sometimes record you without your knowledge, because she thought you said her name. Hell, many other sites have also done it for years. Should you freak out? Not if you’re comfortable with Google and Amazon logging your normal web activity, which they've done for years. And not just listening, but recording and saving many of the things you say. The world is yours.īut you know what? That little talking cylinder is always listening to you. You’ll be turning off lights and requesting videos from bed. You’ll be asking for the weather, the news, and your favorite songs without having to poke around on your phone. If you got an Amazon Echo or Google Home voice assistant, welcome to a life of luxurious convenience.
