Alexa users can now opt out of having Amazon workers listen to them talk
Don't love the idea of some random Amazon employee reviewing your Alexa query about whether or not it's safe for the dog to eat honeydew? Now you can opt out.
(It is safe, and even healthy, for your dog to eat some honeydew, by the way.)
The new privacy feature is a months-later response to the April revelation that some Amazon employees manually review recorded exchanges with Alexa, and can see where the user is located. You can find it in the Alexa Privacy section of Amazon's website or smartphone apps.
All Alexa users should probably go ahead and opt out now, given Amazon's handling of the issue so far. When word first emerged that employees were manually reviewing Alexa recordings -- a practice that wasn't disclosed in Alexa's terms and conditions at the time -- Amazon claimed that those employees had no way to connect a recording with the user's location.
Specifically, the company's statement read: "[Employees] do not have direct access to information that can identify the person or account as part of this workflow."
Then, later in April, that claim turned out to be untrue. Bloomberg reported (and Mashable independently confirmed) that manual reviewers can view the location data Amazon collects, specifically the latitude and longitude where the recording is made. That info could then be plugged into Google Maps to get an address.
It looks like Amazon isn't halting the manual review process entirely, but it's taking a more transparent approach to informing users on how their interactions with Alexa are handled. The new privacy setting is paired with a disclaimer that explains how recordings are used to improve Amazon, and that "[o]nly an extremely small fraction of voice recordings are manually reviewed."
The added privacy featured arrived on the same day Apple suspended a program that had human reviewers listening to exchanges with the company's Siri voice assistant.
Google faced similar issues back in July, when there was a leak of more than 1,000 Google Assistant recordings from a similar manual review program. In the aftermath, the company stated that manual reviews had been paused, and that users could opt out of having recordings stored in their activity controls menu.
[h/t Bloomberg]
Topics Amazon Amazon Alexa Cybersecurity Privacy
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
