Amazon is forcing a significant privacy change on Echo users by eliminating local voice processing capabilities, requiring all voice commands to be processed in the cloud starting March 28, 2025. This shift represents a growing tension between advanced AI features and user privacy controls, as companies increasingly centralize processing to support more sophisticated capabilities. The change affects even privacy-conscious users who had specifically opted to keep their voice commands processed locally on their devices.
The big picture: Amazon is removing the “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” option from Echo devices, forcing all user voice commands to be processed in the cloud instead of locally on the device.
- The change takes effect March 28, 2025, and affects all supported Echo devices, including the 4th-gen Echo Dot, Echo Show 10, and Show 15.
- Amazon justified the change by citing the need for cloud processing power to support new generative AI features that exceed the capabilities of local hardware.
Behind the scenes: Amazon quietly implemented this significant privacy change without a formal announcement, only notifying affected users through direct emails.
- The company’s help documentation for the feature has not been updated to mention the upcoming March 28 deprecation.
- Amazon confirmed to The Register that the emails circulating on social media about this change are legitimate.
What it means for users: Privacy-conscious Echo owners will lose control over where their voice commands are processed, with all requests automatically being sent to Amazon’s cloud.
- Users who don’t take action will have their settings automatically changed to “Don’t save recordings,” meaning voice data will be processed in the cloud but deleted after processing.
- Those who want full functionality, including voice ID and personalization features, must allow Amazon to store their recordings.
Reality check: Even with the previous “local processing” option, user privacy was still limited as text transcripts were still sent to Amazon’s cloud.
- Amazon claims relatively few users had enabled the local processing option in the first place.
- All Echo devices will now operate under a cloud-first model regardless of user privacy preferences.
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