Amazon Echo has won so many hearts, it makes our day to day task easy. However, recent incident wherein a lady’s private conversation was sent to a person without any confirmation, supposedly due to some technical shortcomings. Moreover, Alexa suddenly bursting into laughter could scares you to holy hell.
On a serious note, Alexa sharing the information might be a bug, however, it is important to pay attention towards it. With all that is happening in the world, data scandals and privacy violation, one needs to be careful. Amazon smart home speakers, Echo tend to record audio just after they have been woken up. You might accidentally use the wake word and Echo will be activated to respond.
So, if you are concerned or curious to know what the smart speakers know about, read on to know how!
View and Delete Audio Recording
We can check out the audio recording that Alexa has stored with ease. Follow these steps to know how:
- Launch Amazon Alexa app on your smartphone.
- You will get three horizontal lines icon located at the top-left corner.
- Go to Settings.
- Scroll and look for History under, Alexa Account and tap it.
- After this, you will get every single command or interaction you ever had with Alexa.
- The app gives you the option to sort the recordings by date. Tap on any of the listed recordings to listen to the conversation. If you want to remove any of them, you delete them from the app by tapping on the recording, then click on Delete audio recording.
Under the list of Audio recordings, you will also get the audio recording which was not supposed be recorded. The Entry might say, “Alexa,” or “text not available”. Tap on the recording and listen to it, to know why Alexa woke up and avoid that to stop triggering in future. Once you know why and how it got triggered, you can tap on it and Delete the recording.
Even if you are not satisfied and concerned about your privacy, you can get your whole data removed. To do that, go to Amazon’s Content and Device management
Ever Wondered why Amazon Collects This Information?
Collecting the users’ data is not a selfish move on the part of Amazon. According to the company, they collect, keep and use your recorded audio to analyze and improve your experience with the smart home speakers. Making them better and more indulged in routine conversation.
The main objective of recording and analyzing these commands is to enhance the performance of Alexa according to your preferences. Amazon also makes a voice profile for an individual user that communication with particular Alexa account.
All seems to be good and users would be more than happy to experience improve smart speakers. However, the latest incident has made people fickle about the privacy. If these random conversations could frivolously activate Alexa and record everything.
Amazon has to work on making things work, the way a user wants to stick to the position in the market. One incident could ruin the rapport and shake the foundation of trust.
Amazon Buckle Up!