Amazon to remove 'Do not send Echo recordings to Amazon's cloud' feature on March 28, 2025, so that all recordings will be sent to Amazon's cloud
In February 2025, Amazon announced ' Alexa+ ', a voice assistant 'Alexa' equipped with generative AI. Prior to this, Amazon informed some users of the smart speaker ' Echo ' that 'the option to locally store and process what you say to Alexa will end on March 28, 2025.'
Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amazon starting on March 28 - Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/everything-you-say-to-your-echo-will-be-sent-to-amazon-starting-on-march-28/
Amazon to Ax Setting That Lets You Store Alexa Voice Recordings Locally | PCMag
https://www.pcmag.com/news/amazon-to-axe-setting-that-lets-you-store-alexa-voice-recordings-locally
Until now, Echo had an option in the settings called 'Use of voice recordings' with the aim of 'training Alexa using recordings from various customers so that Alexa can provide high-quality features to all customers.' By turning this off, your voice recordings will not be sent to Amazon's cloud.
However, Amazon has notified some users by email that the ability to turn off 'voice recording usage' will be removed on March 28, 2025. This means that after March 29, 2025, all voice recordings made to Alexa using Echo will be automatically sent to Amazon and processed in the cloud.
'We have decided to end support for this feature in order to continue expanding Alexa's capabilities with generative AI capabilities that rely on the processing power of Amazon's cloud,' Amazon said. On February 27, 2025, Amazon announced its next-generation AI assistant 'Alexa+' equipped with large-scale language models and agent functions, and this series of feature deletions is thought to be a measure to make the most of Alexa+.
Amazon announces 'Alexa+' equipped with generative AI, available free of charge for Amazon Prime members - GIGAZINE
On the other hand, there are certain risks associated with providing these voice recordings to third parties. In fact, in 2021, it was reported that any regular employee of Amazon had free access to a database that stored conversations with Alexa.
Amazon's former security chief testifies that 'general employees had free access to customer personal information' - GIGAZINE
'Voice requests to Alexa are always encrypted as they travel to Amazon's secure cloud and are designed with layers of security protections to keep customer information safe,' Amazon explained.
Amazon says that if you turn off voice recording by March 28, 2025, you will no longer have access to some personalized features, such as Alexa+. That's why some users say, 'Now's the perfect time to get rid of Alexa.'
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