Now You Can Tell Alexa to Delete Your Conversations
If you don’t like the idea that your Echo device records every question you ask it – and it’s all in the interest of, well, whatever Amazon’s arguments are – you can now clear its memory every day with a handy voice command. Tell your device, “Alexa, delete everything I said today,” and your Echo speaker or other Alexa device will do just that: delete all voice data and saved commands in your account that have accumulated that day.
You must, of course, first configure this feature in your Alexa app’s settings, and this setting is pretty hidden. Open the app, open Settings and tap Alexa Account> Alexa Privacy> View Voice History. There, turn on the “Enable Voice Removal” option and teach your roommates to pronounce the “phrase” as diligently as you do every day, just in case you forget.
You will also soon be able to tell Alexa to “remove what I just said,” a feature that is due to roll out at some point over the next few weeks in the US.
For those looking to store as little Alexa data as possible, we recommend using these voice commands frequently, especially after periods of heavy use. If you have forgotten or the time between deletions seems too long, you can also manually delete the data from the Alexa app settings, for which we also have a guide .
For iOS users, we also recommend using Jumbo , a privacy app that lets you delete all data associated with any accounts you’ve synced with the service. The app currently works with Amazon Alexa, Google and Facebook, and support for other platforms such as Instagram and Tinder is also planned.
While we’re glad this feature now exists, we can’t help but assume that this is Amazon’s answer to the bad press the company recently received. There have been numerous reports on how Alexa monitors and transmits voice data , as well as other privacy issues related to Amazon smart home devices, such as certain Alexa settings that meant Amazon employees could eavesdrop on your Echo conversations at any time. and that the Amazon Ring security camera footage is stored, viewed, and categorized by Ring staff . Fortunately, you can turn off many of these features, or at least take steps to reduce the likelihood that strangers can access your devices or data .