Smart speakers are part of the essential accessories that we have in our home today. If we ask them something, they answer our questions or doubts and these conversations are stored . Many of the users doubt and distrust whether the microphone of these smart speakers hears what we say even when we have not said the activation command. In the case of Alexa, does she listen to our conversations all the time? We clear the doubts.
There are tricks and tips to improve the privacy of the smart speakers that we have at home if we distrust that they are listening to our conversations at all times. At Amazon, they are aware that we are concerned about how our personal information is used and shared, so in the conditions of use we find some of the keys to the operation and privacy of Alexa.
How Alexa works
Smart speakers are plugged in somewhere in our home and have a microphone that activates when we mention the activation command . In the case of the Amazon Echo, the word to repeat is “Alexa”. This information is sent to the cloud and records what we say until we delete it manually or configure it to be automatically deleted after a certain time.
“By default, devices with integrated Alexa only transmit audio to the cloud if the device detects the wake word (or Alexa is activated by pressing a button). When a device with integrated Alexa detects the wake-up word and begins to transmit audio to the cloud ”is what is explained in the conditions of Alexa and Echo speakers.
It may be the case that, even if we do not mention the keyword, the speaker interprets that we have said it. If we say something similar and the Amazon Echo thinks we have said “Alexa” what is called an unintentional activation occurs. “Every time your Echo device detects the wake-up word, a visual or auditory indicator will indicate that it is recording audio for transmission to the cloud, and you can review and delete the voice recordings associated with your account (including any audio resulting from unintentional activations) in your Voice History ”.
Does Alexa record all conversations?
No, Alexa does not record all of our conversations. Echo devices are designed to detect only the trigger word that we have chosen. The most common is to choose “Alexa”, but we can also choose “Amazon” or “Echo”. The device will detect the activation word thanks to acoustic patterns. “No audio is sent or stored in the cloud unless the device has detected the activation word (or Alexa has been activated by pressing a button),” they explain.
Manage voice recordings
There are some guidelines to improve the privacy of smart speakers. The first option that may come to mind is to turn off the microphone or unplug the speaker. This action does not make much sense, since precisely one of the reasons for having a smart speaker is that we can ask it what we want at any time. If we want it to turn on the lights or turn off the television, we would have to first plug it in, and once we are up, we could carry out that action ourselves, so it makes no sense to do so.
If you have an Amazon Echo device you can improve privacy from the assistant application that you will have installed on your smartphone. From the app we can check the voice history , manage the history of the different devices, set the permissions of the skills and manage the way in which your data helps to improve Alexa.
