Amazon keeps Alexa voice recordings unless you delete them

Amazon has admitted that it retains the recordings Alexa voice until customers remove them. Additionally, even after deleting a voice recording, traces of it may remain on non-primary storage systems. None of this is good news.

Examine how Amazon handles your data

In the first half of 2019, various tech publications began investigating what Amazon was doing with the voice recordings of the people at Alexa. Which, for people unfamiliar with how Alexa works, is anything that is said immediately after saying your watch word.

Reports suggest that Amazon is keeping transcripts of people's interactions with Alexa, even after voice recordings have been erased. Senator Chris Coons from Delaware sent letter to Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos , and Amazon finally responded.

Amazon admits it keeps Alexa voice recordings

According to CNET, Coons asked two questions, starting with "How long does Amazon store transcripts of users' voice recordings?" To which Amazon responded, "We keep customer voice recordings and transcripts until the customer decides to delete them."

This is revealing in itself, as Amazon admits that it saves Alexa's voice recordings and transcripts until the customer deletes them. And if they don't remove them, we have to assume that they are being held indefinitely.

Coons also asked, "Do users have the option to delete some or all of these transcripts?" After explaining how users can delete the voice recordings associated with their account, Amazon delved into the details of what is stored and where, saying:

That's a lot of information to digest, but it's basically Amazon saying it's doing its best to remove deleted transcripts from its systems, the business and third parties can keep the transaction records and the business. will keep certain data of certain requests.

How to delete your Alexa voice recordings

Coons seems pleased with this response, while promising to do more to "protect the personal information of Americans." However, we believe that customers who interact with Alexa will have concerns about data retention.

Until you improve the way you handle this data, all you can do is erase it as much as possible. So with that in mind, here's how to delete voice recordings on your Echo. Or, if you're feeling lazy, you can ask Alexa to delete your voice recordings.