Amazon announced that starting from March 28th, the option for Echo users to process voice recordings only on local devices will be removed, and all recordings will be sent to the company’s online cloud system. This decision has sparked discussions about user privacy. Amazon, one of the leading companies in the technology world, revealed that Echo devices will directly send all voice recordings to the online cloud starting from March 28, 2025. With this innovation, the option to process Alexa requests on a local device will be eliminated. Amazon states that this step is taken to support Alexa’s new-generation artificial intelligence features. Users criticize the decision, claiming that it violates privacy terms. Amazon’s transition to a cloud-based system aims to optimize the newly introduced Alexa+ service. The company’s AI-powered voice assistant Alexa will be trained using voice commands uploaded to the cloud system. This way, Alexa+ is expected to provide faster and more accurate responses to voice requests, and offer advanced personalization options. Utilizing the deep learning capabilities of artificial intelligence, Alexa is expected to evolve into an assistant capable of performing more complex tasks. For instance, instead of simply providing basic weather information to users, Alexa is expected to deliver much more detailed analyses. Privacy concerns are at the forefront. Although Amazon claims that this change will offer a better user experience, questions regarding security and privacy have arisen among users. Particularly, the continuous uploading of voice recordings to the cloud has raised concerns among users, reminding them of past data breach and misuse of voice recordings allegations. The company, however, assures that it implements high-level encryption and advanced security protocols to ensure the safety of user data. Past Issues Amazon has faced several significant issues in the past related to voice recordings and data privacy. In 2019, it was revealed that Amazon employees were listening to Alexa users’ voice recordings. Although the company claimed to do this to enhance artificial intelligence algorithms, users being unaware of this situation and some recordings containing sensitive content led to major controversies. The American Federal Trade Commission fined Amazon $30 million in 2023 due to data privacy violations related to Ring and Alexa devices. These violations included employees being able to access voice and video recordings, and voice recordings of children being stored for longer than permitted.