Amazon has acknowledged it retains much of the data that’s produced by user interactions with Alexa on its Echo smart assistant device, even when those users delete the content.
Amazon detailed its data retention practices in a letter to Sen. Chris Coons, D-DE, who had requested the information from the retail giant in May. Coons publicized the response in a release earlier this week.
In the letter, which is signed by the company’s vice president for public policy, Brian Huseman, Amazon says that it wipes transcripts of interactions from Alexa’s primary storage system when users delete a recording. But in many instances, the company retains the data.
For example, the letter reads, “for other types of Alexa requests – for instance, setting a recurring alarm, asking Alexa to remind you of your anniversary, placing a meeting on your calendar, sending a message to a friend – customers would not want or expect deletion of the voice recording to delete the underlying data or prevent Alexa from performing the requested task.”
That would presumably mean, for instance, that while you could delete the content of your message to a friend, data such as who you sent it to and when you sent it would remain in Alexa’s system.
The company also acknowledged that it retains records of requests such as “when a customer subscribes to Amazon Music Unlimited, places an Amazon Fresh order, requests a car from Uber or Lyft, (or) orders a pizza from Domino’s.”
Amazon claims it needs to retain this data to continue improving Alexa’s artificial intelligence systems.
“To work well, machine learning systems need to be trained using real world data,” Amazon’s letter says. “…Training Alexa with voice recordings and transcripts from a diverse range of customers helps ensure Alexa works well for everyone.”
The company also said keeping transcripts that don’t get deleted help it show customers what went wrong if Alexa makes a mistake – “for instance, customers can see and hear how Alexa may have misunderstood a particular word or phrase” the letter says.
“We use the customer data we collect to provide the Alexa service and improve the customer experience, and our customers know that their personal information is safe with us,” Amazon says.
In his release, Sen. Coons said he was concerned that, “Amazon’s response leaves open the possibility that transcripts of user voice interactions with Alexa are not deleted from all of Amazon’s servers, even after a user has deleted a recording of his or her voice.”
“What’s more, the extent to which this data is shared with third parties, and how those third parties use and control that information, is still unclear,” Sen. Coons said. “The American people deserve to understand how their personal data is being used by tech companies.”
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