We’re here to dispel many of the most common myths about Alexa.
1. Alexa Is Always Listening and Recording Everything
Because you can say “Alexa” at any time to start a dialogue with Alexa, it seems logical that the virtual assistant is always listening and recording what you say. However, only the first part is true. Alexa is listening all the time, but only for the word “Alexa.”
2. There’s No Way to See What Alexa Is Recording
You can easily see what Alexa has recorded—in fact, you can see and hear everything Alexa has heard since you first started interacting with it in the Alexa app, available for iOS and Android. To see everything your Echo records, open the Alexa app and navigate to More > Settings > Alexa Privacy > Review Voice History.
Here, you can see a transcript of what Alexa has heard, the time and date it was recorded, alongside an audio recording. You can filter by devices and profiles and see your entire voice history. You can also delete specific recordings or delete all recordings from a given period.
If you’re concerned about your privacy when using Alexa, follow the steps outlined in our article on easy ways to protect your privacy with Alexa.
3. Your Data Can Be Easily Accessed by Hackers
The notion that hackers can easily spy on you with Alexa is false. It’s important to preface that Alexa can be vulnerable to hacking, just like any electronic device. But almost all verifiable evidence of an Echo being hacked involves either requiring physical access or oversight by users.
4. Alexa Can Do Almost Everything
While it might seem like Alexa can do everything, given its ability to do your shopping, order pizza, and turn off every light in your house at once, that’s far from the case. There are many things it can do, but just as many (or more) things it can’t.
However, Alexa’s language processing skills are limited. Questions like “how many legs does an elephant have?” will prompt Alexa to use its AI skills to search the web and determine the answer to be four. But if you ask Alexa, “how many legs do 10 elephants have?” it’ll say four because it can’t yet process the question as naturally as we might like.
The emphasis is on the word “personal” here. As stated earlier, Alexa will only record speech after it’s heard its wake word. No personal conversations are recorded, as freaky as it might be to be advertised something you were just talking about (these ads are often based on internet searches or predictions based on others’ searches.)
6. Drop In Can Be Exploited to Allow Anyone to Listen In to Your Home
Drop In is a feature that lets you instantly start communicating through another Alexa-enabled device. Unlike a phone call, there’s no opportunity to decline a Drop In. This might lead you to think that the Drop In feature is easily exploited and that anyone could be listening at any time.
There are multiple immediate barriers to this, however. For one, Drop In from an Echo outside your home is disabled by default. Secondly, you must grant explicit permission to anyone that wants to Drop In, and they must be in your contacts before they can be allowed. Lastly, Alexa will play a unique sound that indicates that a Drop In has begun.
Still Not Convinced? Use Occam’s Razor
Occam’s Razor states that the most likely explanation for an event is usually the simplest or the one requiring the least assumptions.
Hopefully, this article will have put your mind at ease over some myths surrounding Alexa.
