How to Delete Voice Data Stored by Amazon Echo and Google Home
For those of us who don’t have smart Amazon speakers, we come home for the holidays and bring a new family member with us who is constantly being yelled at. Alexa! ALEX! SKIP SONG! But for anyone living with an Amazon or Google smart home device, day in and day out, you end up wondering how much is he listening to? Does he send every word I say to the Big Tech Company headquarters?
First, yes, he always listens. He has to be to hear his keyword – “Alexa” or “Hey Google” or “computer” or whatever. But according to Wired , he doesn’t record anything until he hears that line. (The Reply All podcast recently ran an episode tackling a related suspicion of the idea that Facebook is eavesdropping on our phones to target ads based on our conversations. Short cut: Facebook isn’t listening to what you say, but is tracking you each time. a different way to target your ads.) After you call the device, however, record at least in order to route your requests to the cloud.
This way your requests are sent to a server in the cloud, computers do their job, and Alexa or Hey Google gives you what you want. But what happens to your queries in the cloud? They stay there. If you don’t clear them. Here’s how:
For Alexa, go to the Alexa app and select Settings, then History to delete queries individually. To clear everything at once, go to the Content & Device Management section of your Amazon account. Find your echo under Devices and select Manage Voice Recordings. You will see a pop-up allowing you to perform a full cleanup.
For Google go to myactivity.google.com . Click on the three dots in the upper right corner and select “Delete Action Before”. You will be able to select a date range – or all of the time – and find Voice and Audio under the All Products section.
There’s no way to prevent your Echo or Google Home from recording your requests – the devices themselves don’t have the information you need, so they have to record your voice in order to process your commands in the cloud – but you can at least do regular cleaning.
What Amazon Echo and Google Home Do With Your Voice Data | Wired