Amazon Alexa Can Now Immediately Delete Your Voice Recordings (cnet.com) 27
Amazon appears to be making good on its effort to keep tightening privacy for its Alexa-powered devices, even after the hot-button issue has cooled down this year. From a report: The most notable change is a new option to automatically delete your voice recordings immediately after they are processed by Alexa. A written transcript of these recordings will still be available for 30 days but can be deleted anytime you want. This feature, which is available starting Thursday, builds on Amazon's other auto-delete functions, which let a customer delete Alexa voice recordings on a rolling three-month or 18-month basis. Both those options were announced at Amazon's launch event last year.
Will they really? (Score:5, Interesting)
How long before we find out they didn't really delete them?
Re:Will they really? (Score:5, Informative)
How long before we find out they didn't really delete them?
The recordings are still kept by default.
They are only deleted if you turn on that option. Most people won't bother.
So Amazon doesn't need to cheat because they will still get plenty of data for marketing and training their VR.
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not only marketing .. but for the security forces .. police and various agencies that show interest in what goes in inside everyone's homes. best is not to play : never use devices that send anything out of your home to anyone.
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How long before we find out they didn't really delete them?
Yesterday. I already fully expect them to keep everything. Training data is valuable. They will not throw it away unless forced to.
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In a way storing the data is less important than you may think. You only need the recordings for a few seconds to:
- Making a voice print you you can be followed around.
- Analyze your emotional state, for example to figure out if now is a good time to try and sell you stuff.
- Analyze the strength of your relationship (yeah, this is really a thing).
- Analyze for all kinds of health issues.
- Etc.
After that the only value of storing the voice files is being able to feed them to new profiling algorithms that wer
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Can. (Score:3)
But won't.
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But will tell you that they did, so everyone is happy and there's no issue.
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It's useful because
- If law enforcement requests the recordings Amazon either has really deleted them or has to admit it lied.
- If it lied there is a massive GDPR file headed their way.
Can Alexa survive the funniest joke? (Score:2)
I was just looking to see if there were Alexa skills for a waitress to speak a table's order, and do something useful. I did not find anything remotely useful. Oh, well.
Moving on, I wonder if Alexa can handle the funniest joke. I reference the second book of Jones' trilogy, "Fall of Colosus", where the computer was taken down by an impossible question. To protect the English readers, I will post the German translation of the joke.
Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder
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As a German native speaker, I have to tell you that I think you were conned on that joke.
why do we keep getting these nonsense PR stories (Score:5, Insightful)
its like if someone smacked you in the face in the middle of the sidewalk every day when you went to get your mail, then the media started printing stories about how some mail-getters complain of being smacked, then later on the media reports that smacking has decreased by 85% and backhanded slaps by 90%.... the smackers are keeping their promises to improve their behavior.... ... why is there some one smacking me in the face when i go to get my mail, at all? why is this ok? when did this become a thing? what is wrong with society?
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its like if someone smacked you in the face in the middle of the sidewalk every day when you went to get your mail, then the media started printing stories about how some mail-getters complain of being smacked, then later on the media reports that smacking has decreased by 85% and backhanded slaps by 90%.... the smackers are keeping their promises to improve their behavior.... ... why is there some one smacking me in the face when i go to get my mail, at all?
Well, in this case it's because you asked them to.
"I invited a thief into my house and he stole things!"
Opt OUT (Score:4, Insightful)
So both privacy-protection options are NOT THE DEFAULT and you have to opt OUT of their default practices (saving recordings AND saving transcripts) individually? Anything that is privacy related that you have to opt OUT of to maintain privacy is automatically not privacy-friendly. And you have to hope they actually honor what they said they will do. And you have to hope they don't change those options later without your knowing. And you have to hope they don't invent new, conflicting options that you miss.
I suppose it is better than nothing. I have a different solution- I don't use things that record me and take it out of my control in the first place.
Why trust Amazon? (Score:3)
How, exactly, are the recordings deleted? Does that really mean just hidden from view? Just marked as deleted? Are they recoverable for some period?
Amazon has given the world no reason whatsoever to trust anything that Amazon does.
Opt out totally. (Score:3)
Do you really believe these info harvesters ever delete anything? Even if you demand that it is deleted, I suspect they are keeping a copy somewhere that they can retrieve if they really want to do so. The safest path is to not allow one of these spying devices into your life. Having a cell phone is bad enough. Having one of these things listening to everything you say and do in the supposed privacy of your home is way beyond the level of acceptability for me. Refuse to keep one of these things and starve the data parasites out. You can look at the clock if you need to know the time. You can turn on a radio by yourself if you want some music or the weather report. Free yourself of this spying.
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Why would they bother keeping a secret copy? What great need would warranty having a secret programme to store large volumes of data clandestinely, risking massive GDPR files and public outrage? All they do is use it to spam you with ads, it's not /that/ valuable as long as most people don't opt out.
Alternative headline (Score:2)
too late (Score:2)
And let's not forget what else just happened (Score:2)
Nope (Score:1)
We've deleted your comments, as far as you know (Score:1)
Wow! Instant removal! (Score:1)
The right to be forgotten in a single button press.
Amazing.
But I guess, not truly true, but it _can_ be marked as true.
:(
I don't believe it! (Score:1)