Amazon has officially announced that it will disable a feature that enabled users of some of its Echo smart speakers to choose not to send their voice recordings to the cloud.
According to an email, the company on Saturday, March 15, 2025, revealed the discontinuation of the feature that allowed select Echo devices to process Alexa requests locally on March 28, 2025.
This step by Amazon seems to be connected to the launch of its generative artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Alexa Plus, expected later this month.
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Speaking to The Verge, Amazon spokesperson Lauren Raemhild confirmed the change and stated, “The Alexa experience is designed to protect our customers’ privacy and keep their data secure, and that’s not changing. We’re focusing on the privacy tools and controls that our customers use most and work well with generative AI experiences that rely on the processing power of Amazon’s secure cloud.”
“Customers can continue to choose from a robust set of tools and controls, including the option to not save their voice recordings at all. We’ll continue learning from customer feedback and building privacy features on their behalf,” she added.
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According to Raemhild, you will still be able to have Amazon delete voice recordings after they’ve been sent to the cloud, while if you have the “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” option enabled, it will default to the “Don’t Save Recordings” setting on March 28.
