Despite being a truly ingenious idea which continues to be a great help to folks, Amazon's Alexa has only managed to raise suspicion amongst many of us. We previously reported on the digital voice assistant device recording a couple's private conversation. Moreover, the same couple reported that the voice-controlled device even laughed at them while they were having a confidential discussion. Evidently, there remain a few things about Alexa that raises the hairs on the skin. And now, reports by HYPEBEAST have only increased the level of suspicion surrounding the Amazon product by indicating that the voice assistant still retains your recorded audio files after you delete them. According to the aforementioned news outlet, the news came after the billion dollar company sent a letter to Senator Chris Coons.
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Herein, the latter delved into the company's privacy practices when it comes to Alexa. They addressed the question posed by Coons on how long the company held recordings and transcripts from the Echo. "We retain customers’ voice recordings and transcripts until the customer chooses to delete them." Yet in another instance, they confirmed that they "do not store the audio of Alexa’s response. However, we may still retain other records of customers’ Alexa interactions, including records of actions Alexa took in response to the customer’s request." Croons addressed the urging matter and pressed the company to let users know that "user voice interactions with Alexa are not deleted from all of Amazon’s servers, even after a user has deleted a recording of his or her voice." Senator Croons believed it was a service owed to the American people. You can read the full letter here.