If you own an Echo smart speaker, it will soon lose a key privacy feature — and be replaced with cloud processing of all voice commands.
Users of Amazon’s Echo smart speaker will soon receive an email from the company detailing changes to the device’s voice request processing. Beginning March 28, everything users say to Echo’s Alexa engine will be sent to Amazon.
The move will disable local processing of voice requests in favor of a new Alexa+ feature called Amazon Voice ID, notes Ars Technica.
This feature will allow Echo devices to recognize different users, and will be implemented for all existing Echo devices. The change allows different users to check or modify their own calendars, music libraries, or reminders.
By contrast, Apple devices that support Siri have been able to recognize multiple users since 2019. That said, prior to 2021 Siri had to ping Apple servers first when processing voice requests.
With the debut of iOS 15, all speech processing and personalization can be handled without an internet connection using machine learning — including setting alarms, launching apps, controlling podcast/music playback, and system settings.
Internet access is still required on smart speakers across all brands for current answers to topical queries, and for installing system updates.
“As we continue to expand Alexa’s capabilities with generative AI features that rely on the processing power of Amazon’s secure cloud, we have decided to no longer support [on-device processing],” the company said in its email to users.
Use it or lose it
Although Amazon’s email reminds Echo users that they will be required to turn off the existing “Don’t save recordings” feature. The company warns that if users do not disable that feature, “Voice ID may not work” — effectively bricking the Echo as of March 28.
Previous reports have said that Amazon employees can also listen to personal requests. Bloomberg noted in 2019 that workers listened to as many as 1,000 audio samples per day to help train natural-language understanding and speech recognition systems.
The company also has a history of paying fines for privacy violations. In 2023, the Federal Trade Commission charged Amazon with allowing employees and contractors to view customers’ video recordings from Ring cameras.
Later that same year, the company paid a fine of $30 million in penalties for the Ring privacy violations. The fine also covered accusations of Amazon storing recordings of child interactions with Alexa devices.
In its new email, the company says it will now delete recordings after cloud processing. However, users must disable the “Don’t save recordings” control on their local devices in order for the Alexa+ feature to work.
Amazon appears to be setting the stage for further subscriptions, as the Alexa service has been unprofitable for the company. The move will effectively force users to choose to either share recordings, or lobotomize their existing Echo devices.
