About 91 million Americans, one in three adults, own a smart speaker. Amazon and other companies collect information from conversations with smart speakers. They also work with third-party organizations that offer advertising and tracking services. Amazon records and analyses users’ voice data.
This is to provide personalized ads on and off its platform. It shows that smart speaker chats can lead to clicks from advertisers up to thirty times more expensive. Finally, their privacy policies sometimes fail to communicate their functions.
These are the findings of a recent privacy study on smart speakers conducted by the University of Washington, UC, and Northeastern. The main aim of the research was to determine whether smart speakers are spying on you. The answer is yes: your Amazon Alexa is monitoring you.
The US Federal Trade Commission also holds this opinion and beat a $25 million fine against Amazon for privacy failures concerning Alexa and Ring’s doorbell cameras.
What is Alexa?
Amazon Alexa is a virtual assistant you can command using your voice. Multiple Amazon products have Alexa, most typically associated with the Amazon Echo, Amazon Dot, and other smart speakers. It allows users to play music, make to-do lists, control other smart gadgets around the house, and stream current news, weather, and traffic information.
Companies have combined Alexa with other third-party devices, like smart TVs and sound bars.
What’s Supposed to Happen When You Use Alexa?
Amazon states that Alexa devices always listen but only begin recording after you say the wake word (Alexa by default) or hit the button on the Alexa device. You can adjust these settings, but if you turn off the voice activation, having a device like Alexa might become less valuable.
When Alexa listens to the wake word, it transmits a small audio clip of the term to Amazon’s cloud for processing. This process confirms that the user spoke the correct word and initiates the requested action.
After confirming the wake word, Alexa listens for a few seconds before sending the recorded data to Amazon’s cloud computers. These computers then initiate the purposeful action.
Alexa devices should provide visual clues that notify you they’re listening to your conversation. For instance, an Amazon Echo will turn on the circular blue light after actively listening to the wake word.
Alexa Hears too Much
In 2020, researchers from Northeastern University and Imperial College London reported that smart speakers mishear their wake command and incorrectly activate up to 19 times a day.
Approximately 50% of these accidental activations lasted over 6 seconds. The worst performers included the Echo Dot 2nd Generation devices, with response times varying between 20 and 43 seconds.
Alexa Gathers Personal Information
Amazon is not shy about linking everything you do with your Alexa to your Amazon account. You can use the information to profile you for targeted advertising. It is the same as tracking your browsing history through cookies and recording your search and purchase history on Amazon.
This helps Amazon get to know you better than just looking at your shopping history.
The type of information you collect by interacting with Alexa devices is so important that advertisers would be willing to pay 30 times more for it than information derived from other methods.
Amazon records your recordings by default. Nonetheless, you can delete them entirely through your device’s privacy settings or limit their availability on Amazon for a short period before their deletion.
Amazon Employees Listen to You When You Make Voice Recordings
A 2019 Bloomberg report indicated that a team of thousands worldwide was listening, transcribing, and feeding the Alexa voice recording back into the Alexa algorithm.
The company says this enables Alexa’s AI and natural language recognition, and employees cannot access such personal data.
This statement, seemingly, is nothing but a heinous lie. Bloomberg obtained an unauthorized screenshot, revealing that users’ details weren’t visible. The transcription included an account number, the user’s first name, and their phone’s serial number.
Employees must also write down any chance encounter with Alexa and the overhearing of unintentional conversations. It includes sensitive information, such as names and banking details. In this case, the rules require them to click on a “critical data” box and proceed.
Amazon has supported the practice, stating that users can choose not to have their voice recordings analyzed by humans through their account settings. Amazon will still review your recordings even if you opt-out. A person who has access to your account details will study your recordings manually as part of Amazon’s routine procedure.
Alexa Makes Mistakes
Alexa recorded a private conversation and forwarded it to a randomly chosen contact on the owner’s address book in 2018. The user reportedly did not even speak the wake word. In the same year, it also mistakenly sent 1700 Alexa voice recordings to another user.
Amazon Gives Away Most of Its Alexa Information to Third Parties
Alexa Skills are lightweight, free apps that can add functionalities to your Alexa device. Alexa’s functionality has significantly improved by incorporating around 200,000 skills developed by third-party creators on the Amazon Marketplace.
Utility for this purpose is costly. Amazon has strict limitations regarding the kind of private information that these third-party “skills” may access. For example, this information cannot contain social security numbers or bank details. They should also request permission before getting your location, email, SMS, etc.
A 2022 research paper supports a prior study that found many independent skill creators take advantage of Amazon’s privacy laws and utilize data they gather from Alexas for targeted ads. Moreover, they provide it (along with other Alexa exchanges) to some third parties without supervision from their clients or Amazon.
Most third-party sites must disclose any privacy policy; even when they publish, one does not follow.
Amazon doesn’t Always Delete Your Data When It Says It Does
The crux of what just happened between the U.S. FTC and Amazon. In 2023, there was a request by users and specifically parents on how Amazon ought to have deleted all the active child profiles, some audio data files, and GPS tracks for privacy reasons.
Amazon has been proclaiming to its users, notably parents, that users could erase their voice recordings and geolocation information collected via the Alexa App. However, the company still needs to achieve what it promised its users after keeping those records for several years and using them secretly.
In his words, Amazon violates COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) of 1998. The case is still pending as it awaits approval by a Federal Court following the agreement between the FTC and Amazon.
Conclusion
Amazon Alexa devices are more than handy. However, they come at the cost of privacy. In contrast, Amazon claims that Alexa does not intrude on user privacy. Studies have proved that it collects data for targeted ads and may sell it without permission. Alexa’s data is more important. This raises questions about Amazon’s credibility. It has failed to control privacy breaches from third parties.
For customers who value privacy and like smart speakers, Siri works. It has minimal connection to third parties and less data sharing. Alternatively, Mycroft, an open-source voice assistant, prevents privacy compromise. Users can install Mycroft on a Raspberry Pi or change the Alexa firmware to replace it with Mycroft.
Also, the Mycroft Mark II smart display comes in a packaged version. But Mycroft AI is about to shut down soon. So, while the answer to “Is Amazon Alexa spying on me?” is yes, users have only a few good replacements. Ultimately, it all comes down to human precautions like not having Alexa where you conduct private conversations and being aware of not speaking the wake-up word when you don’t need it.
