How to keep Alexa, Cortana, Google Assistant, from recording you

rajamit.raj03

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[p]At their best, voice assistants from the likes of Microsoft, , Google, and Amazon empower us to be more productive. They queue up our favorite songs, give us previews of our weekly agendas, and place phone calls to friends and loved ones. But they’re also recording the commands we utter for posterity (and in some cases human review), which predictably doesn’t sit right with everyone.

[p]Fortunately, most assistants can be switched off, disabled, or otherwise fettered in a few simple steps. Here’s a guide to doing just that, and to deleting any voice snippets they managed to record in the meantime.

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[h2]Amazon’s Alexa[/h2][p]The easiest way to delete Alexa’s voice recordings is from the Alexa app for iOS and Android.

[ol][li]Tap the menu icon in the top-left portion of the screen, and then select the Settings Shortcut.[/li][li]Look for Alexa Account. Tap Alexa Privacy-that’s where you’ll see transcribed requests you’ve asked of Alexa, along with the times at which they were recorded and the device that recorded them. (Occasionally, you’ll see entries that read “Text not available — audio was not intended for Alexa,” indicating that Alexa was invoked by mistake.) You’re able to sort them by date, play them back, or delete them.[/li][/ol][div id="attachment_2482888"][amp-img src="https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/alexa_privacy.png?w=711&resize=533%2C450&strip=all" alt="Amazon Alexa privacy" width="533" height="450" srcset="https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/alexa_privacy.png?w=958&strip=all 958w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/alexa_privacy.png?w=300&strip=all 300w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/alexa_privacy.png?w=768&strip=all 768w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/alexa_privacy.png?w=711&resize=533%2C450&strip=all&strip=all 711w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/alexa_privacy.png?w=400&strip=all 400w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/alexa_privacy.png?w=780&strip=all 780w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/alexa_privacy.png?w=578&strip=all 578w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/alexa_privacy.png?w=930&strip=all 930w" sizes="(max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px" layout="intrinsic" i-amphtml-layout="intrinsic"][img decoding="async" alt="Amazon Alexa privacy" srcset="https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/alexa_privacy.png?w=958&strip=all 958w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/alexa_privacy.png?w=300&strip=all 300w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/alexa_privacy.png?w=768&strip=all 768w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/alexa_privacy.png?w=711&resize=533%2C450&strip=all&strip=all 711w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/alexa_privacy.png?w=400&strip=all 400w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/alexa_privacy.png?w=780&strip=all 780w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/alexa_privacy.png?w=578&strip=all 578w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/alexa_privacy.png?w=930&strip=all 930w" src="https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/alexa_privacy.png?w=711&resize=533%2C450&strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px"][/amp-img][p]Above: Voice recordings captured by Alexa, as viewed from the Alexa privacy page.

[div][em]Image Credit: Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat[/em][/div][/div][p]Alternatively, you can manage Alexa recordings from the web.

[ol][li]Head to Amazon' Alexa Privacy Page . You’ll see shortcuts to settings screens that not only collate your voice history, but let you review your Smart Alert history (events like glass breaking or smoke and CO alarm sounds that Alexa detected), manage your smart home device state history, view which third-party Alexa apps (skills) have requested permission to access your data, and manage how your voice data is used to improve Alexa.[/li][li]The Review Voice History menu largely mirrors the app experience — you can sort recordings by date range, listen to them, or delete them individually or in bulk. Ditto for Review Smart Alert History — it shows events, details, and listenable snippets sorted by date.[/li][li]Selecting the Manage How Your Data Improves Alexa shortcut brings you to a toggle that, when switched off, prevents your voice recordings from being used in the development of new Alexa features. (Amazon warns that “new features may not work well” for users who choose to opt out.) Here, you’ll also see a switch that disallows Amazon from using messages sent via Alexa Messengering Amazon’s voice and text messaging service — to improve transcription accuracy.[/li][/ol][h2]Microsoft’s Cortana[/h2][p]

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[p]Microsoft’s Cortana ships on machines running Windows 10 and has an ambient listening feature that enables it to respond to commands when a microphone attached to your PC hears the phrase “Hey Cortana.” It’s relatively easy to prevent it from listening in and storing your search habits and history while keeping its keyboard-based search functionality intact.

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[h2]Google Assistant[/h2][p]Disabling Google Assistant’s voice recording and collection isn’t too challenging, but the steps differ on each platform.

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[p]On an Android phone or tablet, here’s the most reliable way to prevent Assistant from listening for commands:

[ol][li]Open the Settings menu and to Good to Assistant[/li][li]Select Microphone and slide the toggle off.[/li][/ol][div id="attachment_2482890"][amp-img src="https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/google_assistant.png?w=450&resize=338%2C450&strip=all" alt="Google Assistant privacy" width="338" height="450" srcset="https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/google_assistant.png?w=699&strip=all 699w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/google_assistant.png?w=300&strip=all 300w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/google_assistant.png?w=450&resize=338%2C450&strip=all&strip=all 450w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/google_assistant.png?w=400&strip=all 400w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/google_assistant.png?w=578&strip=all 578w" sizes="(max-width: 338px) 100vw, 338px" layout="intrinsic" i-amphtml-layout="intrinsic"][i-amphtml-sizer][img alt="" role="presentation" aria-hidden="true" src="data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg height="450px" width="338px" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"/>"][/i-amphtml-sizer][img decoding="async" alt="Google Assistant privacy" srcset="https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/google_assistant.png?w=699&strip=all 699w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/google_assistant.png?w=300&strip=all 300w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/google_assistant.png?w=450&resize=338%2C450&strip=all&strip=all 450w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/google_assistant.png?w=400&strip=all 400w, https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/google_assistant.png?w=578&strip=all 578w" src="https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/google_assistant.png?w=450&resize=338%2C450&strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 338px) 100vw, 338px"][/amp-img][p]Above: A list of Assistant voice recordings from Google’s My Activity page.

[div][em]Image Credit: Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat[/em][/div][/div][p]Regardless of the platform on which you’ve used the Assistant, all transcribed audio snippets it has collected are always a click away on the My Activity

[p]menu within the Google Account page.

[ol][li]Head to My Activity[strong] [/strong]and click Filter by product and date.[/li][li]Check the Assistance, and either click the search button (for an entire list of recordings) or filter by date, or search for a specific word or phrase.[/li][li]As with Amazon’s voice recording dashboard, snippets can be played back or zapped individually. To delete one, click the details shortcut underneath the transcript, and then click the dots in the pop-up box that appears. Select Delete.[/li][li]To delete your entire Assistant history, back out to the main My Activity menu and select Delete activity by. Switch to Assistant specify the date range, keyword, or topic.[/li][/ol]

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