(Not) Just Between Us: Amazon is killing Echo’s local voice processing, forcing all commands to the cloud

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.