It is possible to ask the assistant for almost anything through the speaker and it will give us an answer immediately. The truth is that both the Amazon assistant and the Apple assistant have been involved at certain times in certain scandals that have to do with the privacy of users and listening to private conversations. Therefore, changing this setting or using this trick will help you to have more privacy and avoid problems.
To avoid this, it is best to turn off the speaker microphone , this way the assistant will not be able to hear anything until we activate it again. Therefore, we should have the microphone deactivated until the moment in which we are going to say the command to activate the assistant, which would be the moment to activate it, and once we have consulted what we wanted, we should deactivate it again.
Disable on Alexa
If we have a smart speaker with integrated Alexa and it is one of the models from the manufacturer Amazon itself, we will find a button on the top or on one of the sides to activate and deactivate the microphone. Therefore, all we have to do is press this button so that it remains off and cannot hear anything, and activate it just at the moment of saying the command to activate the “Alexa” assistant. Once the request or interaction with the Amazon assistant is finished, we must make sure to click on the button again to turn it off and that it does not listen.
You can also turn off the microphone and camera if you have an Amazon Echo with a camera. Amazon explains that it is enough to press the button “activate / deactivate” microphones and camera. According to the company, “when the microphone and camera on/off button is pressed, power to the camera and microphones is cut off and a red indicator light turns on.” Also, as a security ‘extra’, some devices with cameras have a cover that allows you to cover the camera without having to touch the button. You cover it and the device cannot detect movement in the field of vision or record.
Another recommendation is to delete the history of voice commands that we have requested from the assistant through our smart speaker. For this we have several options:
- Tell the assistant himself to delete everything we have told him.
- Enter the Amazon website
- Log in with your username and password
- Enter the Alexa Privacy options
- Go to the Check voice history section
- Tap on “Delete all recordings”
We can also do it from the app:
- Enter the Alexa app
- Log in
- Open the Privacy section of Alexa
- Choose the option Consult voice history
- Confirm with “Delete all recordings”
Disable in Siri
Unlike the Google and Amazon assistants, Apple does not allow you to delete the recording history, although it has been promising for a long time that it will not save this history in the future. Another difference is that the Apple Homepod does not have a physical button that allows us to deactivate the microphone and therefore the assistant stops listening to us through the smart speaker.
However, just say “ Hey Siri, stop listening ” and the speaker microphone will automatically turn off. In principle it is somewhat more comfortable than having to press a physical button on the smart speaker, but for many people it is probably safer to turn it off with a button than through a command. However, we must trust that this is the case, since once we request that Siri stop listening, it will automatically stop listening and will not listen to us again until we press on the top of the HomePod.
As we have just mentioned, Apple’s assistant does not allow us to delete the command history, but from the iOS application settings it is possible to deactivate Siri’s access to personal information . Of course, we must know that if we do this, we will not be able to access Messages, Contacts, Calendar, etc.
Another piece of information that we can prevent the Apple assistant from knowing about us is our location , but on this occasion it is possible to deactivate this option. For it:
- We open the iOS or iPadOS Home app.
- We keep pressing the HomePod.
- Click on the gear icon.
- We enter settings.
- We deactivate location services.