Amazon announced that starting Mar. 28, all Alexa voice commands will be processed in the cloud, removing the option for local processing. This applies to all Echo devices, regardless of subscription status or features like Alexa Voice ID.

Users’ commands will be stored and analyzed on Amazon servers to support Alexa+, its new AI-powered assistant. This change has raised privacy concerns, especially given Amazon’s past issues with data management.

In 2023, the company was fined US$25 million for improperly retaining voice recordings, including those from children. There have also been reports of Amazon employees listening to customer audio for system training.

While Amazon says voice requests will be encrypted, users who don’t save recordings may face limitations, such as losing access to personalized responses via Voice ID.

Recent Amazon developments