Should You Throw Your Amazon Alexa Device In The Trash?

Presearch
Presearch
Sep 3, 2018 · 7 min read
Presearch Privacy Reviews is a series dedicated to reviewing the privacy of all the biggest tech companies. We hope to give you the information you need to enhance your own privacy and make educated decisions that companies would rather you avoid.

Today, we hear from privacy expert Dylan Curran who delves into the depths of Amazon’s privacy policy so you don’t have to.

Amazon was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos. Today, they are the largest internet retailer in the world.

Curran starts us off, “Amazon is an e-commerce platform that has spread its tentacles into every facet of life, such as Amazon Web Services, Alexa, the Amazon Kindle, and even owns companies such as Whole Foods, Ring, Audible, and Twitch. If you’ve used the Internet, chances are you’ve used an Amazon service.”

Instead of going through the multi-pronged, long-winded privacy policy bit by bit, Curran has pulled out the most important sections to analyze for you.

INFORMATION YOU GIVE US

Amazon states that “We receive and store any information you provide in relation to Amazon Services. You can choose not to provide certain information but then you might not be able to take advantage of many of our Amazon Services.”

Their list of examples of information they collect is extensive:

Searches for products or services;

Orders placed through Amazon Services; 

Downloads, streams, views and uses of content on a device, or through a service or application on a device; 

Information provided in Your Account (e.g. email address, mobile number); 

Interactions with the Alexa Voice service;

Contact lists; 

Settings and data access permissions from interactions with your device or another Amazon Service; 

Information provided in your Seller Account, Kindle Direct Publishing account, Developer account, or any other account we make available that allows you to develop or offer software, goods, or services to Amazon Customers; 

Information from products you offer through an Amazon Service  Communications with Amazon by phone, e-mail, or otherwise completed questionnaires, support tickets, or contest entry forms;

Uploaded images, videos, or other files to Prime Photos, Amazon Drive, or other Amazon services, compiled Playlists, Watchlists, Wish Lists, or gift registries;

Participation in community features, customer reviews.

“This is a ridiculously long list of things they collect (I guess they have to account for the dozens of services they offer).” Curran goes on, “And is suitably vague so they can account for pretty much any situation they want to collect your information.”

Curran pulls out crucial information from the above info-dump:

“As a result of those actions, you might supply us with such information as:

Your name;
Your address and phone number;
Payment information;
Your age;
Your location information;
People to whom purchases have been dispatched;
People listed in 1-Click settings (including addresses and phone numbers);
E-mail addresses of your friends and other people;
Content of reviews and e-mails to us;
Personal description and photograph in Your Profile;
Voice recordings when you speak to Alexa;
Images and video stored in connection with Amazon Services;
Information and documents regarding identity and standing;
Corporate and financial information;
Credit history information;
VAT numbers;
Device log files and configurations including Wi-Fi credentials, if you choose to automatically synchronize them with your other Amazon devices.

“There are two things I want to point out,” Curran elaborates. “ First is voice recordings when you speak to Alexa. Amazon has publicly stated they do not collect voice recordings and it’s only stored locally on your device, yet here they state that they do in fact collect it. That Alexa in your house isn’t only storing your commands, it’s also collecting passive conversation as virtually any word can be a trigger to Alexa and Amazon has full discretion when you agree to their privacy policy to collect this information. Nothing is stated that they can only collect voice recordings when you say ‘Alexa’.”

Amazon has publicly stated they do not collect voice recordings and it’s only stored locally on your device, yet here they state that they do in fact collect it.

The first point Curran brings up is huge. Is it a ‘bait & switch’? Is it just devious business practices on the part of Amazon? Although we can’t be sure, what we do know is they aren’t taking our privacy seriously. This should be a big concern for anyone using Amazon’s services.

Curran continues, “ The second thing I want to point out is that they collect the information of people to whom purchases have been dispatched. This means that not only do they collect information about you, they also collect information about people you gift or order things to, and vice-versa. Amazon can get your contact information simply by someone ordering something to your house, something totally out of your control.”

If we consider that by simply sending a gift through Amazon’s services we are unknowingly opening our recipients up to privacy concerns, we might choose differently.

AUTOMATIC INFORMATION

Direct from Amazon’s privacy policy, “We automatically receive and store certain types of information when you use Amazon Services, such as information about your use, including your interaction with content and services available through Amazon Services. Like many websites, we use cookies and other unique identifiers and we obtain certain types of information when your web browser or device accesses Amazon Services and other content served by or on behalf of Amazon Europe on other websites.”

They ‘collect and analyze’ a long list of types of information, including: 

The Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet;

Login; e-mail address; password; 

The location of your device or computer; 

Content interaction information, such as content downloads, streams, and playback details including duration and number of simultaneous streams and downloads, and network details for streaming and download quality, including information about your internet service provider; 

Device metrics such as when a device is in use, application usage, connectivity data, and any errors or event failures;

Amazon Service metrics (e.g., the occurrences of technical errors, your interactions with service features and content, your settings preferences and backup information, location of your device running an application, information about uploaded images and files (e.g., file name, dates, times and location of your images);

Purchase and content use history, which we sometimes aggregate with similar information from other customers to create features such as Best Sellers;

The full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from our website (including date and time), cookie number, products and/ or content you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs);

Phone numbers used to call our customer service number.

“Again, this is incredibly long and the amount of information speaks for itself, but I’d like to highlight one small thing.” Curran gets right to the point, “They state they collect the location of your device running an application. This could be on a variety of devices and services, even your Kindle, and means Amazon is collecting your location every time you access one of their services. They offer Amazon Web Services, which most big websites use (e.g. the New York Times and Uber), so even if you’re using another website that isn’t technically owned or run by Amazon, they can still collect your location when you use that service.”

FOR WHAT PURPOSES DOES AMAZON PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Amazon processes your ‘personal information’ to ‘operate, provide, and improve the Amazon Services that we offer our customers’. The purposes include: 

Purchase and delivery of products and services;

Provide, trouble shoot, and improve Amazon Services;

Recommendations and personalization;

Provide voice services;

Comply with legal obligations;

Communicate with you;

Advertising;

Fraud Prevention and Credit Risks;

Purposes for which we seek your consent;

“This is similar to other privacy policies and includes a variety of information they require to safely process transactions, improve their services, and interest-based information to advertise to you. The most worrying thing here is a small addendum to ‘voice services’. The state the process your voice input so that they can ‘improve Amazon Services’.” Curran gives voice to a critical point of view, “This is incredibly broad and again confirms that Amazon can in-fact collect any interactions you have around Alexa. Over 20 million households now have an Alexa device in their home, so if you own one, make sure to check out your settings to disable the voice collection feature.”

THE VERDICT

Curran summarizes, “Amazon is one of the largest tech companies in the world with dozens of subsidiaries and hundreds of services on offer, they infest most parts of the tech sphere and are incredibly hard to avoid. They give themselves lee-way to collect any information they want, even your conversations. Because of this, I give them a 1/5 star rating and urge you to check out your privacy settings at the very least and throw your Alexa in the trash if you care about your privacy at all.”

I give them a 1/5 star rating and urge you to check out your privacy settings at the very least, and throw your Alexa in the trash if you care about your privacy at all.

Curran also wants to make sure that you know why he is creating these reviews. It’s pretty important. “ We make these privacy reviews so you don't have to read the policies yourself. We make them so that we can educate you further about your privacy online, something not a lot of people are actually doing right now”.

You can watch the entire Privacy Review below:

Presearch Privacy Review #7: Amazon

Presearch is a decentralized search engine that doesn’t collect your personal information. We offer access to over 80 different search providers while rewarding you with PRE tokens simply for searching.

www.presearch.org

Presearch

Written by

Presearch

Presearch is an open, transparent and decentralized search engine — visit www.presearch.io for more info

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade