A voice assistant can discover whatever information you need, dial a number, or start playing your favorite song with only a few phrases. Google Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa, and Apple’s Siri must constantly listen for their wake word and record your queries to be as useful and intelligent as they are. Leaving these records unchecked creates security hazards, which you may prevent by frequently erasing your recording history or using the auto-delete feature.
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Privacy and Security Risks of Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant
Virtual assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant are so convenient that it’s easy to overlook that they may pose certain privacy and security hazards. So, what should you be on the lookout for?
These assistants begin recording your voice anytime they believe they have heard a word, occasionally picking up a false positive and inadvertently capturing your private discussions. Distant servers store these recordings, making them vulnerable to data breaches and cyberattacks.
These privacy concerns highlight the importance of understanding broader digital security risks. TorNews has a guide to common cybersecurity threats and ways to protect yourself that can help users make informed decisions about securing their devices, personal information, and online activities.
Keeping Your Voice Search Recordings
Your voice search history is saved on the database servers of Google Assistant, Alexa, and Siri, making these servers attractive targets for thieves attempting to steal user data.
Using Your Voice to Train Artificial Intelligence
So, what happens to the audio data recorded by your voice assistant? If you use Google Assistant and choose to save your voice recordings, the program will extract the data and search for keywords to enhance Google’s systems. Your audio data, however, will not be linked to your Google account.
Alexa logs every time it believes you have uttered its wake word. Amazon may utilize some of these recordings for AI research, but they are not associated with any account or person.
Apple allows you to opt out of submitting your recordings and remove your audio interactions with Siri and dictation history.
Companies may later utilize your audio recordings to train their speech recognition and deep learning algorithms. Though anonymized, certain inadvertently captured private conversations can hold information that someone could use to reconstruct the speaker’s identity.
Data Profiling
Virtual assistants may collect information about your interests, preferences, and behavior by analyzing your instructions and other auditory interactions. They may use this information to create your profile for future targeted advertising.
Voice Squatting
Voice squatting (also known as skill squatting) is a technique used by cyberattackers to register malicious apps with phony keywords that seem authentic to mislead voice assistants into launching or installing fake apps. An artificial “Calendar” app, for example, may be mistaken for a true “Calendar” app. The installation or use of these rogue programs may result in unauthorized access and eavesdropping on your communications.
Dolphin Attacks
Ultrasonic attacks on dolphins make voice assistants vulnerable. TV adverts or inaudible sounds can disguise tricky commands. Your voice assistant might mistake them for their wake words. Bad people can also use such tricks to make your smart assistant do things or reveal secrets. Nevertheless, do not worry. Companies always improve their systems to discover these tricks. Always ensure that your virtual assistant is updated.
It’s a decision of more privacy or more ease. Therefore, it would be better to delete your voice assistant’s history or simply turn off the recording.
How to Delete Your Voice History on Alexa
If you wish to remove individual recordings, Amazon’s Alexa allows you to delete them all at once or piece by piece. Although Alexa does not have an auto-delete feature, you may modify its settings to prevent it from recording anything you say in the future.
Delete All of Your Voice History on Alexa
Here’s how to clear Alexa’s recording history:
- Launch the Alexa app.
- Then, in the bottom-right corner, press the three-line symbol “More.”
- Then, select “Settings.”
- Then, at the bottom of your screen, press the “Alexa privacy” button.
- Check the box next to “Review voice history.”
- Then, on the right, hit the arrow next to “Displaying.”
- Tap the arrow by “Filter by date.” (For multiple Alexa devices, check “All devices and profiles” under “Filter by device or profile” if not already selected.)
- Choose “All History.” You may also choose a different period based on how many recordings you wish to remove.
- Tap “Delete all of my recordings” after that.
- To confirm the operation, press the “Delete” button.
Stop Your Alexa from Saving Recordings
Amazon’s Alexa does not allow you to delete your recordings automatically, but you may instruct it to cease keeping them. Please remember that enabling this function will also destroy all prior recordings.
Until the fourth step, you can repeat the actions outlined in the section on removing Alexa’s history. Once you’ve opened the “Alexa privacy” area, follow these steps:
- Scroll to the bottom and select “Manage your Alexa data.”
- Click the button that says, “Choose how long to save recordings.”
- Choose “Don’t save recordings” and press “Confirm.”
Delete Specific Voice History on Alexa
To erase particular history, repeat the procedures for erasing all Alexa history until the fifth step. You may check your recordings and erase particular ones after you enter the “Review voice history” area.
Open the dropdown options next to “Filter by date” and “Filter by device or profile” to erase recordings history from a certain date range (today, yesterday, last 7 days, last 30 days, all history, or custom) or specific devices and profiles.
Delete Your Alexa History with Voice Commands
To delete Alexa’s recordings using your voice, turn on “Enable deletion by voice” in the “Manage your Alexa data” section.
They can use this feature by saying, “Alexa, delete what I just said,” to remove the most recent item you told your virtual assistant, or “Alexa, remove everything I said today” to remove all of today’s recordings. Alternatively, you can ask Alexa to delete all your past conversations.
How to Delete Your Voice History on Siri
If you are worried about how Apple maintains your Siri search history and want to ensure your information is in the right hands, you may remove it. You may turn off the “Hey Siri” voice activation capability and dictation to prevent Siri from always listening to you.
Delete Your Siri History
Follow these methods to remove your Siri recordings history on your iPhone effortlessly:
- Navigate to the “Settings” app.
- Scroll to the bottom and select “Siri & search.”
- Next, select “Siri & dictation history.”
- Click the button that says “Delete Siri & dictation history.”
- A caution message will show at the bottom, so click “Delete Siri & dictation history” to proceed.
- To finish the procedure, use the “Dismiss” button.
Disable Voice Activation for Siri
These steps will turn off the “Hey Siri” or “Siri” voice activation feature:
- Navigate to the “Settings” app.
- Start by tapping “Siri & Search.”
- Then, tap “Off” and then “Listen for “Siri” or “Hey Siri.”
Disable Dictation for Siri
Here’s how to turn off Siri dictation on your iOS device:
- Go to the Settings application.
- Choose general from the list.
- Click on “Keyboard.”
- Select Enable dictation and turn it off.
That’s it! Your Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant activity has been removed, increasing your security and privacy.
How to Delete Your Google Assistant History
If you prioritize your privacy, you can delete your entire Google Assistant history or utilize the auto-deletion feature to eliminate your speech data regularly.
Delete All Your Google Assistant Voice History at Once
Here’s how to remove your complete Google Assistant history on an Android device:
- Launch the “Google Search” Application.
- In the top right corner, tap on your profile image.
- Select “Settings.”
- Select “Google Assistant.”
- Scroll to the bottom and touch “Your data in the Assistant.”
- Scroll to the bottom and select “Assistant activity.”
- Select “Delete.”
- You can remove today’s history, history for a certain date period, or records from the pop-up window.
- The following box will warn that choosing the history you want to remove will result in permanent data loss. To confirm the operation, press the “Delete” button.
- The next popup will notify you when the deletion is complete. To close the window, use the “Got it” button.
Delete Specific Google Assistant Voice History
If you wish to erase certain Google Assistant history occurrences, proceed to the seventh step described above. Then, rather than hitting “Delete,” simply tap the “x” symbol to the right of the piece of history you wish to erase. A pop-up may appear asking you to confirm the action.
Delete Your Google Assistant History with Voice Commands
Say, “Hey, Google, delete my last conversation” to erase your most recent Google Assistant history. To remove today’s or this week’s recordings, tell, “Hey Google, delete today’s activity” or “Hey Google, delete the activity of this week.” If you like to erase what you just declared, inform your virtual assistant, “Google, this wasn’t for you.”
Auto-Delete Your Google Assistant Voice History
You may also instruct your Google Assistant to remove your history automatically by enabling the auto-delete capability. Simply follow the instructions for clearing your Google Assistant history until you reach “Your data in the Assistant,” at which point perform the following:
- Scroll to the “Audio recordings” section and select “Listen & delete activity history.”
- Select “Auto-delete (On).”
- Select the arrow next to the time frame under “Auto-delete activity older than” and choose how frequently you want to delete your voice activity: every 3, 18, or 36 months. Afterward, click “Next.
- To confirm the action, click “Confirm” on the following window.
