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How to listen to and delete the conversations recorded by Alexa inside your home

By Alan Friedman

Published: May 28, 2018, 8:45 PM

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Listen to and delete the conversations recorded by Alexa by opening the Alexa app

The other day we told you about a husband and wife who were stunned to find out that Alexa had recorded a private conversation they had about hardwood flooring, and passed it along in the form of an audio file to one of their contacts. Amazon blamed this on a series of misunderstandings on the part of its virtual personal assistant. The company claimed that Alexa thought it heard certain comments made by the husband and wife in the background that it incorrectly heard as commands to record the conversation, and send it on to a random name from their contacts list.

If you own an Amazon Echo smart speaker and have installed the Alexa app on your smartphone, you can actually hear the conversations that the virtual personal assistant recorded inside your home. And, you can also delete these files. To do this, you first open the Alexa app and tap on the hamburger icon on the left of the screen. From there, tap on Settings. You then scroll down to History. Click on History and you will be able to listen to some of "your voice interactions with Alexa."

After you follow the directions to play the recording, you can then provide Amazon with feedback about Alexa. Did the virtual personal assistant do what you wanted her to do? If you're not happy that Alexa taped your conversation, tap on "no." Some of the conversations include a written transcription, although you won't find any text transcribed in those cases where Alexa heard her name, but did not detect a task for her to handle, or a request for information.

Any voice recordings under the "History" heading can be deleted by tapping on the bar that reads, "Delete Voice Recordings" (see screenshot on the right). We tried this out and listened to a snippet of a conversation where yours truly was discussing Alexa. To be honest, it was a bit creepy. There is no doubt that most who follow the directions laid out in this article will feel the same way when they hear their own voice talking about Alexa.

source: USAToday

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Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.

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