Do you use multiple Amazon devices with Alexa voice assistant? Have you ever worried about how Alexa privacy is handled? You should, protecting privacy with Alexa is very important because these devices “know everything about you”; they know what time you get up and what time you go to sleep, they know your tastes and habits and also the sites you connect to. This is because every command and every interaction with home automation devices is stored on the Amazon servers. In this short guide, without wasting too much time, I will explain how to protect your privacy with Alexa devices.
Index
- Protect privacy with Alexa
- Disable the Alexa camera when you don’t need it
- Delete the Alexa command history
- Set automatic deletion of Alexa commands from Amazon servers
- Delete the Smart Home Devices history
- Check the data used by third party skills
Protect privacy with Alexa
If you care about Alexa privacy and care about protecting your data then just follow these five simple rules to protect privacy with Alexa.
1. Disable the Alexa camera when you don’t need it
We cannot talk about alexa privacy protection without talking about the camera mounted on the echo devices (echo spot, echo show, echo show 8 and echo show 5) which could shoot video without the user’s knowledge. If you have an echo show 5 or echo show 8 device then you can dim the device’s camera by simply moving a lever that will cover the camera lens.
Unfortunately the echo show (10 inch) and echo spot devices do not have a mechanism to obscure the camera and the only remedy to prevent accidental video footage is to put them in Do Not Disturb mode by saying the command ” Alexa do not disturb ” or by scheduling a routine. to set this mode as better described in this guide.
2. Delete the Alexa command history
To protect privacy with Alexa you will first need to then check and delete the Alexa command history. This voice assistant in fact records every command given and it is possible to consult the history of all the commands as described in this guide .
You can then delete the Alexa history via a voice command or via the Alexa app by following the instructions in this guide .
3. Set automatic deletion of Alexa commands from Amazon servers
To protect privacy with Alexa, the best solution is to automatically delete the recording of Alexa voice commands from the Amazon servers. Unfortunately, you can set Alexa to automatically delete voice messages only after 3 or 18 months (see this guide to know how to do it). You can solve the problem by creating an Alexa routine that deletes all recorded voice messages every day at 24:00 (read this guide to learn how to create an Alexa routine).
4. Delete the Smart Home Devices history
Deleting the device history for the smart csa is particularly important for alexa privacy because it allows you to know your habits (for example when you are and when you are not at home, when you wake up and so on). From the section dedicated to managing the history of voice commands of the Alexa app, it is possible to delete the history of Alexa home automation devices. Open the Alexa app from your smartphone and press the menu button (the button at the top left of the screen depicting three lines), a side menu will open from which you will have to select the settings item . On the next screen select Account Settings and then History ; scroll down and tap on the itemManage history for the smart home . From here, to delete the history, press the blue button that says delete history.
5. Check the data used by third party skills
Finally, to protect privacy with Alexa you will need to pay attention to how the data is used by the skills. in fact, every skill that is connected to Alexa can receive sensitive data from your voice assistant. Open the Alexa app and go to the privacy settings page as I described to you in the previous paragraph.
From here you can set which data to share with the skills and you can also decide to disable certain skills.
