Amazon admits it keeps records of what Alexa does for you even after you delete voice recordings. The company says storing interaction data trains the AI better, but privacy experts warn smart speakers require accepting significant trade-offs.
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And new concerns about your privacy when using Amazon's Alexa personal assistant. What the company says about how long it stores your information and what it does with it. You'll want to listen to this one.
This is NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.
Just ahead, Alexa, are you listening? New privacy concerns over how long Amazon is holding on to records of your conversations even if you delete them. It's one of the most popular smart speakers out there, Amazon's Alexa. But tonight it's the focus of new privacy concerns. Here's Jolene Kent.
Tonight, Amazon admitting it may be keeping track of what you say to Alexa. In a letter to Congress, the online shopping giant revealing that even if you delete your voice recordings, Alexa, Amazon holds on to a record of what you say indefinitely, writing, we do not store the audio of Alexa's response. However, we may still retain other records of customers' Alexa interactions, including records of actions Alexa took in response to the customer's request. That means Amazon could store data about when you've ordered an Uber or a food delivery to your home. Last year, in an exclusive interview inside Amazon headquarters, we pressed the head of Alexa, Toni Reed, on privacy. Can customers trust Alexa?
Absolutely. And, you know, part of that is on us from an education perspective so that customers understand it's a new technology and for us to really educate customers and to be able to answer their questions about what is happening.
Amazon says storing what you ask Alexa to do trains the artificial intelligence to better serve you in the future.
It's important to recognize that if you're going to use one of these devices for convenience sake, that there you're giving up a certain amount of privacy, leaving consumers wondering who's listening on the other side.
