We’re not up to Skynet just yet, don’t worry.
Amazon has implemented a couple of changes to its smart assistant Alexa, after concerns regarding data privacy started surfacing these last few weeks. Users are apparently worried that their smart speaker may know too much information about them, considering how often they use it in daily life.
Another issue is Alexa collecting users’ voices and voice searches. As some of you may remember, a Bloomberg report from April revealed that workers from Amazon listened to actual audio clips from real users of Alexa in order to improve the technology behind the device.
The report certainly made a lot of people uncomfortable with the way Amazon handles things like user privacy – a major no-no for a tech company that’s trying to line itself as a family-friendly brand.
Now, concerned users can completely wipe history and data from their Alexa-enabled gadgets, but only those collected on the same day. Amazon plans to implement more features in the near future, however, as part of a growing push by tech giants towards privacy.
These options can be found in the privacy settings, though users are also free to use their voice to clean their history.
