Minnesota “Alexa” Owners Need To Know About This Change

When I was a kid, I loved to watch the Jetsons. For instance, to be able to ask a device a question and have it speak the answer back to me, that technology seemed so far off. I figured I would never be able to experience anything like that. Little did I know that things would evolve so quickly.  

Now I get into my phone using a fingerprint scan, and I have access to practically anything in the world at my fingertips. But, with all of the technology we have in our lives right now, privacy and protection are two things that most of us have some concern about.  

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If you are one of the many people who own an Alexa Echo device, Amazon is making a change you need to be aware of. Effective March 28th, all of your voice requests will be sent to the Amazon secure cloud. 

There has been a setting on the devices where users could restrict Amazon from sharing the information with their cloud.  

Ars Technica shared parts of an email from Amazon to customers saying that as they continue to expand Alexa’s capabilities with generative AI features that rely on the processing of their cloud, they will discontinue the feature.   

This may make some people nervous because they don’t want the things they say to their device in their home being out there, and with good reason. Amazon had an issue in 2023 where they had to pay $25 million because they recordings of children's interactions with Alexa forever.  

This also coincides with Amazon’s rollout of the Alexa+ that will have the ability to recognize who is speaking to it. The new version of Alexa will have more advanced abilities than it’s predecessors.  

If you still use your Alexa device, this is something you should at least be aware of before March 28th and things change.