Many of us have wound up with Amazon Echo devices in our homes over the last few years, and even more likely received them over the holiday season. While these devices (commonly referred to as Alexa) can go anywhere and offer some great functionality, you may wish to avoid keeping them in your bedroom.
Alexa is hands free – it listens to your requests and instantly plays the song you’re looking for, tells you the weather forecast, or rattles off your shopping list. However, because it needs to listen for these commands, it can also record your conversations without your consent. Due to this reason, you may have greater peace of mind keeping Alexa in a spot you’d feel comfortable having company in. Spaces you’d typically host guests such as the living room or kitchen are ideal.
Amazon has confirmed that their staff listens in to conversations recorded by Alexa in order to improve the device’s understanding of human speech. In fact, members of the staff listen to up to 1,000 audio clips per day. However, due to negative feedback, Amazon now allows user to turn off Alexa’s recording as desired. Here’s how:
- Open the Alexa app on your phone
- Access Settings
- Select Privacy
- Click Manage Your Alexa Data
- Choose How Long To Save Recordings
- Select Don’t Save Recordings, then select Confirm
- Scroll to Help Improve Alexa
- Go to Use of Voice Recordings and switch it off
You can also mute your Alexa Echo by toggling the mute button on your device. You can also fully unplug the device to ensure it isn’t listening to your conversations. If you have any questions or concerns about Amazon’s Echo devices, or any general IT inquiries, feel free to reach out to us at info@optfinity.com
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