(Photo Credit: Amazon)
The New Update Is To Improve Privacy Features
California is currently pushing an “anti-eavesdropping” bill that would require companies to get permission in writing from consumers before smart home devices can store voice recordings. Amazon is also facing legal issues from the Federal Trade Commission after consumer and privacy advocates allege that the company was illegally collecting voice recordings and personal information through the Echo Dot Kids Edition of Alexa.
Amazon Alexa has been facing a lot of criticism from those concerned about privacy, so to alleviate the issue, Amazon recently unveiled its latest Amazon Alexa – a smarter speaker with a display and all-new privacy features.
Most notably on the new Alexa is the feature to delete recordings of one’s voice capture when summoning Alexa to do something. Now, when a user says “Alexa, delete what I said today,” recordings of the day’s commands will all be erased. Alexa will also be able to delete the last request made when commanded.
There is no word yet on whether Alexa will be able to delete one’s entire history of voice recordings if commanded, so for those worried about their privacy, they will need to go in and manually delete their history for now.
Amazon is emphasizing Alexa Privacy Hub, a new system meant to provide transparency and privacy when using Alexa and Echo device. Amazon also emphasized that Alexa only begins recording and sending one’s request to its secure cloud servers upon hearing the trigger word “Alexa.”
By: Maytinee Kramer
