‘So scary’: User stunned by hidden Alexa files

An Amazon user has revealed her shock at discovering thousands of voice clips she claims the company has collected from her devices.

A woman who owns multiple Amazon gadgets has been shocked to discover just how much data the tech giant has collected about her.

The woman, who goes by my.data.not.yours on TikTok, posted a now-viral video explaining that she requested to see what data Amazon had collected about her, but wasn’t expecting to receive so much.

“I requested all the data Amazon has on me and here’s what I found,” she said in the video.

She revealed that she has three Amazon smart speakers. Two are Amazon Dot speakers and one is an Echo device.

Her home also contains smart bulbs.

“When I downloaded the ZIP file these are all the folders it came with,” she said.

She then clicked on the audio file and revealed thousands of short voice clips that she claims Amazon has collected from her smart speakers.

She described them as “so scary” and played one of her talking about turning on a light.

There are said to be 3534 short audio clips in that file alone.

She was also sent a “Contacts” file.

“It turns out they have a full list of my contacts from my phone and I never remember syncing that,” she said.

“The very last thing that I didn’t know that they had, I could have assumed that they have but I don’t love that they have, is my location.”

She revealed another file that apparently showed the exact location of her Alexa smart speakers.

The social media star often makes videos about data privacy and tech.

“I’m not totally comfortable with everything they have,” she said.

The video has been viewed millions of times.

One shocked viewer wrote: “It’s scary that people with Echo Dots and Alexas etc don’t know that Amazon records you and keeps the recordings.”

Another joked: “Can someone explain to me why this is ‘scary’? I’m not interesting enough to care if they have my contacts or audio.”

An Amazon spokesperson said: “We give customers transparency and control over their Alexa experience.

“Customers can easily review and delete their voice recordings, or choose not to have them saved at all, at any time.

“Customers can import their mobile phone contacts to the Alexa app so they can use features like hands-free calling and messaging; this optional feature, which customers need to set up, can be disabled at any time.

“Finally, you can grant permissions for the Alexa app to use certain data, such as your mobile device’s geolocation, to provide relevant results (e.g., weather, traffic, restaurant recommendations), and you can manage these permissions in the app.”

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission

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