Amazon’s decision to remove the ‘Do Not Send Voice Recordings’ setting for Alexa devices signals a significant shift, raising crucial questions about user privacy, artificial intelligence, and the direction of smart assistants.
This move, which began in March 2025, blocks users from stopping their recordings from being sent to the company. Amazon claims this change is necessary for developing Alexa’s generative AI capabilities. The shift underscores a growing trend in the technology industry: prioritizing cloud-based processing, even at the expense of user privacy. The smart assistant market has always balanced convenience with protecting user privacy, but Amazon’s recent move is seen by many as crossing that line by requiring all voice recordings to be uploaded to the cloud.
