A casual conversation with a spouse could quickly wreak havoc with your things to do list or result in Spotify playlist hell. Thankfully, as an alternative to muting the microphone altogether, Echo lets you change the wake word. Some voice-activated assistants sound an audible notification once they recognise the wake word and again when they detect the end of the command or question — the iOS voice assistant Siri is a choice example.
The benefit of this notification sound is immediate feedback in case the assistant gets triggered by accident. What could be worse than a Selina Gomez playlist?
Well, how about making a voice purchase, controlling a connected smart home device or — shudder — playing a Michael Ball playlist. We know, right?
The takeaway is to be mindful where you place your Echo — ideally not near a window or front door unless you live in a block of flats. Not only is the companion smartphone app a gateway for configuring your Echo devices, it maintains an activity log of all voice interactions with Alexa devices associated with your Amazon account. In a family home or shared house the real utility of this timeline from a security standpoint is to review exactly who said what to Alexa.
Depending on your level of paranoia — or if random alarms start sounding or items of shopping get delivered — it may be wise to check on this history every now and then. For now, you can use "Amazon," "Computer" or "Echo" instead. Choose the word that you're least likely to use in everyday conversation, so Alexa will record only if you speak directly to it. It's important to remember that Alexa-enabled devices may be able to pick up strangers' voices through closed windows and doors, Dixon adds.
You can also turn off the device's microphone to stop it from listening entirely. Anyone with access to your Amazon account can listen to, share or delete your Alexa voice-recording history on the Manage Your Content and Devices dashboard. This includes family members who order items under the same username, but your information might also be vulnerable to hackers who obtain your Amazon password.
The commands you give Alexa — arming your security system, requesting directions and commute times, or calling friends — can provide malicious actors with valuable information about your daily routine, which can put your personal safety, and that of your home and family, at risk. Just as you would with any other login, follow good password hygiene recommendations. While asking Alexa to set a timer or play cat noises is fairly innocuous, saved recordings that include sensitive health, legal or financial information are less so.
Dixon says most users don't think about the consequences of having their conversations or requests stored indefinitely where others can access them. Recordings may resurface in divorce or child- custody cases, for example. Recordings will remain on the Amazon cloud forever until you remove them. Here's how to delete recent Alexa recordings, automatically delete older recordings or delete all Alexa recordings.
Deleting all old recordings can degrade Alexa's performance slightly because the device uses your history to improve responses over time, and it will have to relearn patterns if information is lost. If you don't want to mass-delete all recordings about local weather or music requests, you can selectively remove more sensitive material.
You can also make sure that your Alexa device isn't being used to test new features , which Amazon employees or contractors are more likely to listen to. Third-party Alexa skills, of which there are tens of thousands , may also collect users' personal information. Amazon requires developers of these skills to provide links to their privacy policies on the skill detail pages, but consumers are responsible for digging through each to understand how data is collected, used and stored.
Emily Long is a Utah-based freelance writer who covers consumer technology, privacy and personal finance for Tom's Guide. When she's not working, you can find her trail running, teaching and practicing yoga, or studying for grad school — all fueled by coffee, obviously.
If there's anything consumers have learned in recent years, it's that everything — even devices or institutions we believe to be secure — can be hacked.
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