Say Goodbye to Alexa Privacy Option—Hello to AI Ambitions?
Amazon just pulled the plug on a key privacy setting for Alexa-enabled devices, requiring all voice interactions to be processed in the cloud starting this week. The move, tied to its upcoming Alexa Plus AI upgrade, is sparking heated debates about user control vs. tech innovation.
The discontinued 'Do Not Send Voice Recordings' setting, once available on select U.S. devices like Echo Dot 4th Gen, will now default to 'Do Not Save Recordings.' While Amazon claims only 0.03% of users activated the old option, critics argue the setting was 'hidden in digital Siberia'—hard to find and rarely promoted.
'This isn’t just about Alexa—it’s about normalizing reduced privacy in the AI era,' warns Cynthia Wong, a digital rights advocate. The debate mirrors real-world tensions: Should smarter AI require *more* data access? Companies like Google and Apple face similar trade-offs with their assistants.
Meanwhile, China's Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) mandates explicit consent for data collection, offering local storage options. Smart assistants like Baidu's Xiaodu and Alibaba's Tmall Genie operate under these guardrails—a contrasting example of regulatory approaches .
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The discontinued 'Do Not Send Voice Recordings' setting, once available on select U.S. devices like Echo Dot 4th Gen, will now default to 'Do Not Save Recordings.' While Amazon claims only 0.03% of users activated the old option, critics argue the setting was 'hidden in digital Siberia'—hard to find and rarely promoted.
Should smarter AI require *more* data access? Companies like Google and Apple face similar trade-offs with their assistants.
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