Amazon Class Action Says Alexa Secretly Records Users

A California woman says that she and others have been secretly recorded by the popular Echo personal assistant device, in a new Amazon class action lawsuit.

According to Hayley Tice, lead plaintiff in the Amazon class action lawsuit, the Alexa Voice Service records communications that occur in private homes and other buildings – without the knowledge of the occupants.

Tice alleges that the recordings are then stored and used for Amazon’s own commercial purposes in violation of California privacy laws.

“The Alexa Voice Service (AVS) is Amazon’s intelligent voice recognition and natural language understanding service that allows persons to voice-enable any connected device that has a microphone and speaker,” explains the complaint.

“All Echo devices are voice-activated and are constantly listening in the owner’s home for a ‘wake word’ which is set by default to ‘Alexa,’” states the Amazon class action lawsuit. “If someone says the wake word, the device starts recording the user’s voice and uploads the recording to Amazon’s Alexa Cloud. Amazon states that the device can detect a user speaking the wake word from across the room. In fact, Alexa can detect a user speaking in another room behind a closed door.”

The plaintiff alleges that Amazon represents to users that Alexa only records after hearing the wake word; however, the device is constantly listening and may even be recording without hearing the wake word. These recordings, contends the Amazon class action lawsuit, are loaded into the cloud and then transcribed and translated.

The Amazon class action lawsuit points out that those who own an Alexa device must also have an account with the online retail giant Amazon and access through a mobile phone app.

Further, once it is set up, Alexa can hear and record others who own a different Alexa device – while they are not in their own homes. Even those who do not own an Echo or have an Amazon account can be recorded by an activated Alexa device.

“Rather than delete a recording after Alexa acts on it as one would naturally expect Alexa would do, Amazon saves a permanent recording of the user’s voice and communication with Alexa and all other voices and communications it also hears in the background on its own servers,” alleges the Amazon class action lawsuit.

Tice contends that Amazon then uses the information gleaned from Alexa recordings, as well as with information from other sources, to personally identify the recorded voices. The retail giant then uses the recordings to analyze consumer behavior – and permanently keep the recordings.

According to the Amazon class action lawsuit, Alexa could be designed in such a way that voices are not permanently recorded. Further, the device could differentiate between its owner’s voice and others and inform those that it is recording and obtain consent.

The plaintiff seeks to represent Californians who have potentially been recorded by an Alexa device by being in the home, business, or otherwise in the presence of the device.

The Amazon class action lawsuit is seeking a court order requiring Amazon to completely delete all recordings made by Alexa devices, along with statutory damages and disgorgement of profit.

The lead plaintiff is represented by Rebecca A. Peterson, Robert K. Shelquist, and Michael J. Vanselow of Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP, Conrad B. Stephens of Stephens & Stephens LLP, J. Barton Goplerud, Brian O. Marty, and Brandon M. Bohlman of Shindler Anderson Goplerud & Weese PC, Charles J. LaDuca and Brendan Thompson of Cuneo Gilbert & LaDuca LLP.

The Amazon Echo Class Action Lawsuit is Tice v. Amazon.com Inc., et al., Case No. 5:19-cv-01311, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Eastern Division.

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