ALEXA can (and does) record your private conversations at home – and you can listen back to them.
Thankfully it's not a nefarious plot to spy on you, but you'll want to check what she's been hearing regardless.
Why would Alexa record your private conversations?
Last week, we revealed how it's basically impossible to stop Alexa from recording private conversations.
It came after a former Amazon exec admitted that works do listen to your conversations through Alexa.
Amazon Echo speakers are an amazing gadget that can make your home life easier and more interesting.
However, Alexa will sometimes record you without your knowledge, because she thought you said her name.
This creates a privacy nightmare, because Amazon sometimes sends those voice clips off to humans for "grading".
The system is designed to improve Alexa, but some might find it creepy.
You can turn human grading off in settings, but you'll still have a huge backlog of recordings in your Alexa app.
Many of these are likely to be unintentional recordings, saved by an over-eager Alexa.
Alexa will always light up with a blue ring when she's recording speech.
But it's easy not to notice this – so checking your Alexa app voice logs is very important.
How to see private conversations
Alexa records snippets of everything you say to her, so you'll have loads of audio files in your app.
But Amazon helpfully flags the recordings that it thinks weren't meant for Alexa's ears.
First, open the Alexa app on your smartphone or tablet.
Tap into the menu bar on the left-hand side and then tap Settings.
Next tap Alexa Privacy, and then go into Review Voice History.
This is where you can check up on all of the voice recordings Alexa has captured for you.
To listen to the Alexa recordings, simply tap the text you want to hear, and then click the tiny Play icon.
Sometimes Alexa will flag when it thinks an audio recording wasn't intended her.
The text won't display in that instance, but you can still listen to the audio file.
To find these accidental recordings, just look for: "Audio was not intended for this device."
How to delete Alexa voice recordings
To delete audio recordings, individually tap on the empty boxes next to each recording to "tick" them.
Then go to the top of the list and press "Delete Selected Recordings" to delete those individual files.
You can also select a date range like "Today", "This Week" or "All History" and then press "Delete All Recordings" for that date range.
If you just want to delete recordings for a specific speaker, you can tap Filter By Device and choose the exact Alexa gadget you're looking for.
You can also enable deletion by voice on this page.
If you toggle it on, you can delete recordings using voice commands.
Just say either "Alexa, delete what I just said" or "Alexa, delete everything I said today".
Should you delete Alexa recordings?
Here's what you need to know…
- You should be rightly worried about Amazon storing a giant log of your voice recordings.
- Major social media firms have suffered hacks and leaks, so you're never truly safe.
- But deleting your voice recordings isn't always the best idea.
- Though deletion will boost your privacy, it may make your experience with Alexa worse.
- Alexa learns your voice and habits over time to improve the service.
- By removing all of your voice recordings, you undo a lot of that learning.
- That said, Alexa will still function just fine even if she's not saving everything you say.
- The choice is yours: do you want maximum privacy or the best service?
In other news, we reveal the best Alexa tips and tricks.
A terrified mum says her Amazon Echo speaker urged her to kill herself.
And Amazon recently launched an Alexa ring and a smart oven.
Do you trust Amazon to protect your privacy? Let us know in the comments!
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