Amazon He has admitted that he keeps Alexa voice recordings unless and until customers delete them. In addition, even after deleting a voice recording, traces may remain on Amazon's non-primary storage systems. None of which is good news.
Investigating how Amazon handles your data
In the first half of the current year, several technology publications began investigating what Amazon was doing with people's Alexa voice recordings. What, for people who are not familiar with how this device works. It is all that is said immediately after saying your word of alert.
Reports suggested that Amazon kept transcripts of people's interactions with Alexa. Even after the voice recordings had been deleted. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware sent a letter to Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, and Amazon finally responded.
Amazon admits that it retains Alexa voice recordings
According to reports, Senator Coons asked two questions, beginning with: "How long does Amazon store transcripts of user voice recordings?" To which Amazon replied: "We keep voice recordings and customer transcripts. until the client decides to eliminate them ».
This is revealing for others. Since Amazon admits that it keeps voice recordings and Alexa transcripts unless and until the customer deletes them. And if they don't eliminate them, then we must assume that they are retained indefinitely.
Coons also asked Amazon: "Do users have the ability to remove any or all of these transcripts?" After detailing how users can delete the voice recordings associated with their account. Amazon delved into the details about what is stored and where, saying:
“When a client deletes a voice recording, we delete the transcripts associated with the client's account. Both the client's request and the Alexa response. We already remove those transcripts from all Alexa primary storage systems. And we have a continuous effort to ensure that these transcripts do not remain in any of the other Alexa storage systems.
Recordings are retained indefinitely
So, when a customer interacts with an Alexa skill, that skill developer can also keep records of the interaction. For example, for many types of Alexa requests, such as when a customer subscribes to Amazon Music Unlimited. Place an order from Amazon Fresh, request a car from Uber or Lyft, order a Domino’s pizza.
Or make a digital content purchase of premium skills. Amazon or the corresponding skill developer obviously needs to keep a record of the transaction.
For other types of Alexa requests, for example, set a recurring alarm. Or ask the device to remind you of your anniversary, place a meeting on your calendar, or send a message to a friend.
Clients would not want or expect the suppression of voice recording to eliminate underlying data. Or prevent the voice device from performing the requested task.
This is a lot of information to digest. But essentially, Amazon says it is doing everything possible to remove deleted transcripts from its systems. Both Amazon and third parties can keep records of transactions. And Amazon will retain some data from certain requests.
How to delete your voice recordings in Alexa
Also, Senator Coons seems satisfied with this response. While promising to work harder to protect the personal information of Americans. However, it is suspected that Amazon customers who interact with Alexa will have reservations about data retention.
Until Amazon improves the way it handles this data, all you can do is delete as many as possible.