Amazon removes privacy option, all Alexa recordings will now go to the cloud
In a significant shift, Amazon has announced that starting March 28, 2025, it will remove the "Do Not Send Voice Recordings" option from its Echo devices. This decision means that all Alexa voice commands will now be processed exclusively in Amazon's cloud servers, eliminating the previous option for local processing. The End of Local Voice Processing Previously, certain Echo devices—including the 4th generation Echo Dot, Echo Show 10, and Echo Show 15—allowed U.S. users (English only) to process voice commands locally, ensuring that their recordings never left the device. However, Amazon reports that this privacy feature was used by less than 0.03% of its customers, leading to its discontinuation. Why Is Amazon Making This Change? Amazon attributes this shift to the expansion of Alexa’s capabilities through generative AI. The company states that these new AI-driven features require the advanced computing power of the cloud, making local processing insufficient. By elimi...