4 Reasons Amazon’s Alexa+ Is a Privacy Nightmare

Amazon’s Alexa has never been known as a bastion of privacy. But now, changes to its upgraded Alexa+ AI assistant will see your data more exposed than ever before.

4

You Can’t Store Requests Locally

Amazon’s Alexa+ changes mean you can no longer store requests you make to your smart home device locally. Instead, everything goes into Amazon’s cloud.

Of course, Amazon must comply with local data privacy laws. However, some users might find it unsettling that their conversations will no longer be exclusive to their devices.

While you can stop Alexa from always listening, you should still be cautious with what you say—even if Amazon says it’ll delete your data once it’s finished processing it.

3

What You Say Could Be Used to Train AI

Like seemingly every company these days, Amazon is investing heavily in AI with Alexa+. Your device will use large language models (LLMs) to help you get more accurate results. Sounds great, right?

Well, yes—to an extent. LLMs rely on input to learn, and what’s going to be going into your Alexa device? Your voice. While Amazon hasn’t explicitly said that it’ll use your voice to train its AI, it is something you should be wary of.

2

Voice Recording Feature Limitations

On a positive privacy-related note, you will at least control whether you save voice recordings in Alexa+. That sounds great until you realize you won’t have full feature access if you choose to do this. Amazon’s Alexa+ update email said:

Starting on March 28th, your voice recordings will be sent to and processed in the cloud, and they will be deleted after Alexa processes your requests. Any previously saved voice recordings will also be deleted. If your voice recordings setting is updated to ‘Don’t save recordings,’ voice ID will not work and you will not be able to create a voice ID for individual users to access more personalized features.

If you opt not to save voice recordings, you won’t have access to Voice ID. Moreover, you won’t be able to make new Voice IDs. Knowing what Amazon knows about you is a good starting point, but you may wish to steer away from Alexa+ if you need these features.

1

You’re Upgrading to Alexa+ Whether You Like It or Not

If you thought these changes only affected users with an Alexa+ subscription, think again. These “updates” will come into effect regardless of whether you have a paid plan. Alexa+ is coming to the Echo Show 15, Echo Show 10, and fourth-generation Echo Dot, and will cost $19.99 per month unless you’re already subscribed to Amazon Prime, where it’ll be included in your subscription price.

It’s an unenviable position for Amazon Alexa owners. You either ditch your Alexa or submit to Amazon’s demands to grab more of your data. There isn’t much of a mid-ground for existing users to move toward; Amazon has set out its stall, and it’s coming for your data. Well, more of your data than it already had.

You can expect Alexa+ to start rolling out on March 28, 2025, and you have no choice to opt in. While this might change in the future, that is not a guarantee.