Amazon Alexa is always listening. That’s what it was made to do. And so is the Google Home Assistant, or any other home AI-assistant device. So it’s important to know – does Alexa record everything?
What these devices are listening for is the “Wake Word”. In the case of Amazon’s Echo device, you wake Alexa up by saying “Alexa”. In the case of Google Assistant, it’s “OK Google“.
What you may not know is – once you use that wake word, the device records. The artificial intelligence that powers these devices sits on vast “cloud” servers owned by Amazon, Google, Apple, and Facebook, spread all over the world. To aid the functionality of these AIs, the recordings of what you say after the Wake Word are stored on the servers.
What Does Amazon Alexa Record?
One way to prove this? If you use Amazon Alexa via Echo, there’s a smartphone app that helps you control the device. Check it out. On the first screen you see, it will have a plain text version of the last thing you said to Alexa. For example, it might say “Alexa heard “play my spotify discover weekly.” And the app will ask “Did Alexa do what you wanted?” in an attempt to improve Amazon’s voice recognition and artificial intelligence capabilities.
Now, this voice recording data is protected by some of the strongest encryption in the world. However, that does not mean it cannot come back to haunt you.
For example, the state of Arkansas recently requested Amazon turn over all Alexa recordings related to a murder case police are investigating. Amazon is litigating the issue as a First Amendment case, requiring a larger amount of paperwork and approvals from the Arkansas police. However, this is likely only the tip of the iceberg as far as the societal role of voice-enabled AI assistants is concerned, with a host of issues yet to be raised.
One, of course, is whether these companies should be storing actual voice recordings in the first place. On the one hand, it is not so different from storing our search history, or our catalog of emails, places where consumers gladly hand over privacy in exchange for services. Voice recordings, however, are not quite the same as inputted data or browsing history. When we browse, only one person is operating the device and by doing so is giving (at least implicit) consent that they’re behaviors are monitored. At the very least, they are actively interfacing with the technology. Voice recordings, however, pick up all ambient noise in the vicinity.
You may be at a party when your host, attempting to change the music, says “Ok Google…” at the very moment you are nearby confessing a personal detail. That information is undoubtedly picked up on the recording, stored on a Google server somewhere. While it’s highly unlikely it should ever get out in a casual instance, think of scenarios where an oppressive government is hunting down activists, or a murder case where subpoenas reveal recordings that unduly embarrass bystanders. So as far as you’re considered, it might as well be that Alexa record everything.
This is all to say that while voice-enabled AI assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Home are overall fantastic consumer devices, with the ability to make us more productive and happier, there is a whole host of privacy issues that have not yet been, and should be, addressed.
How to know what Alexa has recorded
Here, the Amazon Alexa app is your best friend. In the Settings tab of the app, you can see a visual list of everything Alexa has recorded. You can also listen to the recordings (Amazon’s goal for this feature is to help you help them improve Alexa by telling them what Alexa did wrong and what you wanted instead). Most importantly, you can delete these recordings to give yourself piece of mind.