‘Sinister’ Alexa Is Illegally Recording and Storing Your Private Conversations, Class Action Lawsuit Says

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Amazon’s Alexa device is eavesdropping on private conversations, recording and storing them on an Amazon server for the multinational company to use at its will, a new class action lawsuit alleges. 

Plaintiffs Jeffrey Hoyt, Lorlie Tesoriero, Pamela Zager, Maureen Urbach, James Urbach and Caron Watkins — all Alexa users — filed the class action lawsuit against Amazon.com, Inc. and A2z Development Center, Inc. Wednesday in a Washington court. 

The group says they are taking action against Amazon’s alleged practice of using smart- speaker technology to surreptitiously save permanent recordings of millions of Americans’ voices, all without their knowledge or consent. 

“Such an invasion of privacy blatantly violates the laws of Washington, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, all of which prohibit the recording of oral communications without the consent of all parties to the communication,” the class action lawsuit alleges. 

It says Alexa devices are designed to record communications immediately after a “wake” word is used, usually “Alexa” or “Echo.” 

Once the Alexa device is “awake,” it then records the ensuing communication—including anything an individual in the vicinity of the device may say— and then transmits that recording to Amazon’s servers for interpretation and processing.

“Amazon then indefinitely and permanently stores a copy of that recording on its own servers for later use and commercial benefit, warehousing billions of private conversations in the process.”

The class action lawsuit says the practice becomes “all the more sinister” when you discover the magnitude of how much Alexa can capture. 

Amazon doesn’t distinguish between users: anyone in the vicinity of an Alexa device who speaks — whether directly to Alexa or to another person in the room, or even to themselves — will have their voice recorded, the class action alleges.

The issue encompasses other devices such as Echo Dot, Echo Plus, Echo Sub, Echo Show, Echo Input, Echo Frames eyeglasses, Amazon Fire TV digital media player, and Amazon Fire tablets, too, the claim says.

Plus, Alexas can also capture a person’s voice and record their conversations without the intentional use of a wake word, the claim alleges. 

For example, Alexa has started recording on hearing words such as “exclamation,” “congresswoman,” “Kevin’s car” or “pickle,” the class action says. 

It says Alexa’s eavesdropping range captures a host of private conversations that many would find extremely personal. “Such conversations are located and stored in a cold server owned by Amazon—and left in Amazon’s hands to use as they see fit.”

The group is looking to represent all Washington, Maryland, and Pennsylvania residents who have used Alexa or been recorded by one, and have therefore been recorded by Amazon without consent. 

They are suing for multiple violations of the Washington Wiretapping Statute and seeking certification of the class action, an order for Amazon to delete all recordings of Class members, damages, attorneys fees and costs, interest and a jury trial. 

This is not the first class action lawsuit brought over Amazon’s Alexa device. In May, a class action lawsuit was lodged against the company, alleging, unbeknownst to users, more than 200 million Alexa devices may be secretly recording and storing their personal information. 

Plus, Amazon has recently updated its terms of service, now allowing consumers to file class action lawsuits rather than forcing them to mediate disputes in arbitration. The move comes after approximately 75,000 arbitration filings were made against Amazon by consumers claiming that the home assistant device Alexa recorded them without their knowledge or consent.

Do you trust Amazon recording and storing your private conversations? Let us know in the comments! 

The plaintiffs are represented by Bradley S. Keller of Byrnes Keller Cromwell LLP, Michael P. Canty and Carol C. Villegas of Labaton Sucharow LLP, Guillaume Buell of Thornton Law Firm LLP and Mark Goldman, Paul Scarlato and Brian Penny of Goldman Scarlato & Penny, P.C. 

The Amazon Alexa Recording Conversations Class Action Lawsuit is Hoyt et al., v. Amazon.com et al., Case No. 2:21-cv-00809 in the U.S. District Court Western District of Washington Seattle Division.

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