Issue 114: Digital Privacy

Issue 114: Digital Privacy

This week’s
DLTJ Thursday Threads
looks at digital privacy concerns from the commercial perspective.
I think next week’s article will be a summary of recent happenings with government surveillance activities.
Late last month, Amazon launched Alexa+, and with it a flurry of privacy concerns. Why? Because
Amazon now mandates cloud uploads
to process Echo voice commands.
Using the technologies already in buildings, employers can monitor employee activities,
raising privacy concerns
.
Last year the FTC released a report that, while surprising no one, exposed the
extensive data collection
by social media platforms.
Speaking of collecting personal data, all of it ends up in databases of various sorts, and
Fiverr freelancers use tools made for law enforcement and insurance companies
to sell access to anyone.
This Week I Learned
: We started capitalizing the pronoun «I» to distinguish it from similarly typset letters.
This week’s cat
Also on DLTJ since the last newsletter was published:
Holy cow—did the people show up for today’s #TeslaTakedown!
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With Alexa+ launch, Amazon mandates cloud uploads for Echo voice recordings
Amazon has disabled two key privacy features in its Alexa smart speakers, in a push to introduce artificial intelligence-powered “agentic capabilities” and turn a profit from the popular devices. Starting today (March 28), Alexa devices will send all audio recordings to the cloud for processing, and choosing not to save these recordings will disable personalisation features.
—
Everything you say to an Alexa speaker will be sent to Amazon
, The Conversation, 28-Mar-2025
Starting a few weeks ago, Amazon required Echo users to send all voice recordings to its cloud, eliminating a privacy feature that allowed for local processing.
This change coincides with the rollout of Alexa+, a subscription service that enhances the voice assistant’s capabilities, including recognizing individual users through a feature called Voice ID.
Users who previously opted out of sending recordings will find their devices’ Voice ID functionality disabled.
Amazon justifies this move by stating that the processing power of its cloud is necessary for the new generative AI features.
Privacy concerns anyone?
Especially given Amazon’s history of mismanaging voice recordings and allowing employees to listen to them for training purposes.
The company has previously faced penalties for storing children’s recordings indefinitely and has been involved in legal cases regarding the use of Alexa recordings in criminal trials.
Surprise, surprise: this shift would appear to prioritize t…