How have you resolved privacy aspects of Alexa sharing voices in Cloud?

March 24, 2025 3:51 PM

OK, first I did a search for questions like "amazon storing alexa speech in cloud" and found nothing recent on AskMeFi. I am looking for other folks thoughts on this development.

Currently we have only 3 devices in our home using Alexa (to control lights and space heaters). But it does concern us that Amazon is now going to be storing and processing our voice interactions in the Cloud. It seems this is the point where we should either hope for the best or else cut bait and run. We do foresee some changes to our living area lighting set-up. Perhaps others have decided to use a different home automation assistant, if so please recommend.

Also of course sometimes Alexa initiates conversations about weather, Amazon orders, etc.

This Ask was prompted by this news: "Starting March 28th, Amazon Echo users will no longer have the option to process Alexa voice recordings locally, and all recordings will be sent to and processed in the cloud, a change intended to support the development of new generative AI features."

posted by forthright to Technology (5 answers total)

Best answer: The thing is, this has always been true. There was an optional privacy setting that most people never enabled to disable certain information from being sent to the cloud. What is changing is that the optional setting is being taken away.

There do exist some voice assistants that operate entirely locally. They are private and less susceptible to interruption if your Internet connection isn't working. They also typically require DIY hardware or expensive pre-built hardware, as they're not being subsidized by the likes of Google or Amazon. They also don't typically offer as many capabilities, and they won't benefit from some of the big AI models that Amazon and Google are bringing soon to their assistants.

If you like having basic voice features and are especially concerned about privacy, you could look at something like MyCroft, optionally along with Home Assistant. Or, you can take a close look at the Amazon Alexa privacy policy and remaining settings and decide if you can live with the trade-off of convenience/functionality/value and relative lack of privacy. That's the direction I have chosen to go, but YMMV.
posted by maxim0512 at 5:00 PM on March 24 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Are these for scheduling appliances? I use timed outlets or timed switches instead. Besides privacy and lower cost, they also tend to be a more robust option - I've never had one flake on me.
posted by splitpeasoup at 5:16 PM on March 24 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks for the detailed answer maxim0512. And splitpeasoup yes, that is the primary current use of Alexa is to turn lamps on and off, and to turn on a space heater in a drafty room based on occupant voice command. We do already use myTouchSmart In-Wall Light Timers for the porch, patio (and of course the landscaping lights have their own 12V schedule).

The main purpose of my question was to make sure there wasn't some other approach that folks were already taking that wouldn't be as much of a privacy exposure. Also since we're thinking of adding more lighting in our home soon we wanted to decide what scheme we would use. I did tinker with a Raspberry Pi many years ago but I don't think I want to make that time investment.

Thanks again for both answers!
posted by forthright at 5:31 PM on March 24

Best answer: Paying amazon to spy on you seems like overkill to turn some lights on and off. It also adds a huge chunk to your carbon footprint, if you care about that kind of thing.

For sound-activated controls to switch lamps, I have had great success with The Clapper. No privacy issues, no hassles, just works.
posted by SaltySalticid at 4:58 AM on March 25 [5 favorites]

Beginning with iOS 16, requests to Siri are all processed on device by default unless you opt in to sharing. This includes requests to control HomeKit-enabled devices. Caveat, not all devices that already talk to Alexa work with Apple's HomeKit.
posted by emelenjr at 9:04 AM on March 25 [1 favorite]