{"id":9158,"date":"2017-05-09T10:51:15","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T17:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.hellotech.com\/?p=9158"},"modified":"2021-06-12T11:18:02","modified_gmt":"2021-06-12T18:18:02","slug":"amazon-echo-recording","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hellotech.com\/blog\/amazon-echo-recording","title":{"rendered":"Curious What Your Amazon Echo Has Recorded? Here’s How to Find Out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Alexa, play some  music.” “Alexa, set an alarm for 8PM.” “Alexa, create a to-do.” For many Amazon Echo users, these voice commands and more like them have likely become an important part of day-to-day life. This isn’t a surprise really because that 9.25-inch tall cylinder speaker is one awesome and convenient piece of technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Curious<\/span>
Amazon Echo<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

From providing weather reports, streaming your favorite music, and detailing your to-do or grocery list – Amazon Echo and the AI behind it, Alexa, makes life easy. It just sits there, waiting for its wake word to be uttered and to do your bidding. Owning an Amazon Echo is like having a personal AI assistant available 24\/7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazon Echo Preserves Everything It Hears<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The way that Echo works is that it is always listening, waiting for its wake words to activate its functions. Echo’s wake words include “Alexa”, “Echo”, “Computer”, and “Amazon”. The moment you say any of these, Echo records your commands. In fact, it records a part of a second before the wake word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Logging voices is deemed necessary because despite that Amazon Echo is smart and helpful, it is still a computer. It lacks the intuition that humans have in understanding different speech patterns. In other words, it needs to learn how the people around it speak. Since some individuals can speak too fast and others mumble or have a thick accent, Echo needs to synthesize speech patterns through a lot of recordings. This way, it can improve over time in understanding what its humans command it to do. In time, it will become more accurate at following orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Curious<\/span><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Some people aren’t entirely comfortable with Echo recording hours of audio, however. There is also the fact that the voices aren’t just stored in the AI speaker’s memory, but in Amazon’s servers as well. More than a few question if the data is kept private and safe. Others find themselves wondering what Amazon plans to do with these recordings in the future. People are also uncomfortable not knowing what Echo has recorded over the past months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, there is a way to check what the cylindrical speaker has recorded since it entered your home. Better yet, you can delete those recordings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Listen to All of the Commands You’ve Given<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To hear all of what Amazon Echo has recorded in your home, install the Alexa app (Android<\/a> or iOS<\/a>) on your smartphone. The app mainly functions as a tool for you to review all of your activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you go to the “History” section of the app via the Settings menu, you will find audio logs that you can listen to anytime. Simply tap on an entry you wish to hear, and then the play button.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Curious<\/span><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned, if Alexa is new in your home, it won’t be great right away at understanding the way you or others in your house speak. So, when you review your history, you might find strings of recorded conversations that you will have no idea why they got recorded at all. Some people even find that Echo records TV conversations. This is most probably because Alexa misheard a word to be its wake word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, if you are casually speaking to your child and you uttered a word that sounds like “Alexa”, the machine might think you are giving it a command and proceeds with the recording. Then, there’s “Computer”, one of its wake words that will surely be commonly used in the home. So, don’t be surprised if you find randomly recorded audio in your history. The idea is that once Alexa is better at synthesizing its human’s speech patterns, its recordings will be more accurate and make more sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Delete Alexa’s Recorded Audio<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Don’t want Amazon to keep a record of certain conversations with Echo? No worries. You can delete any recording you like, or all of them if necessary. Deleting is easy too. Just follow these steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n