Everything you say to #Alexa now becomes training material for #AI, and no, you cannot opt out
https://adguard.com/en/blog/your-voice-alexa-ai-training-material.html
Pluralistic: #Amazon annihilates #Alexa #privacy settings, turns on continuous, nonconsensual audio uploading (15 Mar 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/15/altering-the-deal/#telescreen
Today #Amazon will force all your voice data from #Alexa through its #AI cloud. That means every word spoken in its presence goes right to Amazon Corporate. Worse, you can't disable this.
Oh, and if you think it isn't sending random conversations to HQ, you don't know Amazon's legal history. They even record children on their kiddie devices -- and store the data indefinitely.
Unless you want to mute the device 24x7 and make it useless, today's the day to ditch Alexa.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/reminder-your-alexa-voice-recordings-will-soon-be-sent-to-amazon
"[A] team of researchers recently set out to determine just how much companies like Amazon, Apple and Google are using the data gathered through their voice assistants to profile us –– track and monitor our behavior –– across the internet.
(...)
The study focused on the behaviors of the three biggest voice assistant platforms: Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant. What researchers found was that how concerned you should be about your smart assistant profiling you varies greatly depending on which device you use.
But in order to figure this out, they had to essentially trick voice assistants into profiling them.
They downloaded publicly available information that Google compiles on every user based on their searches, like gender, age range, relationship status and income bracket. Using those labels, they were able to design questions that could easily convince the platforms that they were, for example, married, had children or were a homeowner not a renter.
The researchers then recorded themselves asking these questions and replayed the audio to voice assistants over and over again. Over the course of 20 months, they conducted 1,171 experiments involving nearly 25,000 queries.
(...)
What they ended up finding was that Alexa exhibits the most straightforward kind of profiling behavior: It’s all based on your interest in products.
(...)
However, with Siri and Google Assistant, things are more complicated.
After reaching out to Apple to get their data, the company insisted “they had no data on us,” Choffnes says, “which means we couldn’t even test anything or prove any hypothesis about whether there was any profiling happening.”
(...)
Meanwhile, Google Assistant was the strangest of the bunch. The researchers found that it was clearly profiling its users but often incorrectly."
https://news.northeastern.edu/2025/03/17/voice-assistant-profiling-research/
You might as well throw your Echo and Alexa-powered devices in the trash like you should have done years ago.
Cory (@pluralistic) with a banger of a post:
https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/15/altering-the-deal/#telescreen
And this factoid:
"Congress hasn't passed a consumer #privacy law since 1988, when the Video Privacy Protection Act banned video store clerks from disclosing which VHS cassettes you brought home."
After Amazon's news this week,
I feel the need to share this advice from my Privacy Guides article again:
Notify guests if you are
using a smart speaker 
If you are using a smart speaker device in your home such as Amazon's Echo (Alexa), Apple's HomePod (Siri), Google's Nest,
Inform your guests about it when they enter your home 
These devices have the capacity
to record all conversations, and there has already been instances of accidental privacy invasion reported about this 
Even if you don't mind yourself,
offer your guests to UNPLUG your smart speaker while they are visiting you 
Alles, was zu Echo gesagt wird, wird ab dem 28. März direkt an #Amazon gesendet
Alle Sprachaufnahmen sollen in die #Cloud und ausgewertet werden #Amazon Alexa
Amazon hat Echo-Nutzer darauf hingewiesen, dass sie Alexa-Anfragen nicht mehr lokal verarbeiten können. Sprachaufzeichnungen landen standardmäßig in der Cloud.....
Looks like it might be about time to throw those Echos out!
Amazon is getting rid of the option for Echo devices to process Alexa voice requests locally
Mich in eine Wohnung zu bitten, in der eine #Alexa läuft, ohne mich darüber in Kenntnis zu setzen und eine Einverständniserklärung zur Aufzeichnung und Übertragung der Gespräche einzuholen, ist damit per sofort illegal, oder? #datenschutz #persönlichkeitsrechte
Amazon streicht Datenschutz-Funktion bei #Echo-Lautsprechern: Ab Ende März werden alle Sprachbefehle zwangsweise in der Cloud verarbeitet - auch wenn Nutzer dies bisher deaktiviert hatten. #Alexa https://winfuture.de/news,149605.html?utm_source=Mastodon&utm_medium=ManualStatus&utm_campaign=SocialMedia
Starting on March 28, Echo users will no longer be able to set their devices to process Alexa requests locally and, therefore, avoid sending voice recordings to Amazon’s cloud. In other words, everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amazon. @ArsTechnica reports:
With just a few week's notice, Amazon is telling folks with Echo devices that the setting that lets smart speakers & displays process Alexa requests locally is disappearing. Starting March 28 all requests will be recorded and sent to Amazon's cloud servers, whether you're using Alexa+ or just plain old Alexa. #Amazon #AmazonEcho #Alexa #privacy http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/everything-you-say-to-your-echo-will-be-sent-to-amazon-starting-on-march-28/
“Amazon annihilates Alexa privacy settings, turns on continuous, nonconsensual audio uploading”
https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/15/altering-the-deal/ #amazon #privacy #alexa from @pluralistic
#Privacy #SurveillanceCapitalism #Amazon's #Alexa
(3/3)
... felony punishable by a five-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine for a first offense."
//
Source:
https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/15/altering-the-deal/#telescreen
#Privacy #SurveillanceCapitalism #Amazon's #Alexa
(2/n)
... for a copyrighted work:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/24/record-scratch/#autoenshittification
That means that once Amazon reaches over the air to stir up the guts of your Echo, no one is allowed to give you a tool that will let you get inside your Echo and change the software back. Sure, it's your property, but exercising sole and despotic dominion over it requires breaking the digital lock that controls access to the firmware, and that's a...
#Privacy #SurveillanceCapitalism #Amazon's #Alexa
(1/3)
Amazon annihilates Alexa privacy settings, turns on continuous, nonconsensual audio uploading
Is this globally?
How e. g. in the EU.
US laws don't apply there.
"If the #Echo is your property, how come Amazon gets to break it? Because we passed a law that lets them. Section 1201 of 1998's #DigitalMillenniumCopyrightAct makes it a felony to "bypass an access control"...
https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/15/altering-the-deal/#telescreen
If you still use one of these devices, you might want to start looking into alternatives.
"In an email sent to customers today, Amazon said that Echo users will no longer be able to set their devices to process Alexa requests locally [...] Starting on March 28, recordings of everything command spoken to the Alexa living in Echo speakers and smart displays will automatically be sent to Amazon and processed in the cloud."
Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amazon starting on March 28
Amazon is killing a privacy feature to bolster Alexa+, the new subscription assistant.
"Since Amazon announced plans for a generative AI version of Alexa, we were concerned about user privacy. With Alexa+ rolling out to Amazon Echo devices in the coming weeks, we’re getting a clearer view at the privacy concessions people will have to make to maximize usage of the AI voice assistant and avoid bricking functionality of already-purchased devices.
In an email sent to customers today, Amazon said that Echo users will no longer be able to set their devices to process Alexa requests locally and, therefore, avoid sending voice recordings to Amazon’s cloud. Amazon apparently sent the email to users with “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” enabled on their Echo. Starting on March 28, recordings of everything command spoken to the Alexa living in Echo speakers and smart displays will automatically be sent to Amazon and processed in the cloud."
Wenn ihr mir folgt, habt ihr wahrscheinlich kein Amazon Echo in Hörweite stehen. Wer sowas kauft, hat ganz sicher die Kontrolle über sein Leben verloren. Das Gerät hat nicht umsonst mehrere #BigBrotherAwards »gewonnen«.
Aber vielleicht kennt ihr ja Leute, die sich selbst was vormachten und dachten, sie seien auf der sicheren Seite, wenn sie anklicken, dass der Echo (Dot/Spot) die Spracherkennung selbst machen soll, statt alle Tonaufzeichnungen in die Amazon-Cloud zu schicken. Tja, diese Option schaltet Amazon Ende des Monats ab. Weil der Bullshit-Generator Alexa+ sonst nicht profitabel sei.
