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Amazon admits it keeps some Alexa recordings even when users delete them

http://www.rt.com/usa/463328-amazon-alexa-recordings-last-forever/

Publisher:  RT
Date Written:  04/07/2019
Year Published:  2019  
Resource Type:  Article

Amazon has admitted that Alexa can keep recordings and other data after a user believe they have deleted them. Amazon cites improving customer service and technology as one reason for doing this.

Abstract: 

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Excerpt:

Amazon has admitted some recordings made by its constantly-eavesdropping AI personal assistant Alexa are never really gone from the company's servers, even if the user manually deletes them. Third parties get to keep them, too.

Not only are transcripts and voice logs stored on Amazon servers indefinitely, but even when a user explicitly deletes a particular recording, they can only be certain the files are removed from the company's "primary storage systems," Amazon admitted last week in a letter to Senator Chris Coons (D-Delaware) after he wrote to the company with questions about its data handling and privacy practices....

Alexa owners learned earlier this year that Amazon employees are listening to them even before they speak the "wake word" set to trigger recording, and the company has since tried to sell this daunting revelation as a feature, unveiling its "Alexa Guard" service, which listens for glass breaking, smoke alarms, and other sounds of distress to "protect" the user, no wake word (or consent) required.
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