Alexa Listened to Healthcare Workers’ Private Conversations for Years, Class Action Alleges

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Human analysts listened to recordings of health care workers’ private conversations taken by Amazon’s Alexa devices for years without consent, violating state and federal laws, a new class action lawsuit alleges.

The class action lawsuit was filed in Washington state by health care industry workers, including a psychiatrist and a substance abuse counselor. The health care workers allege that Amazon violated state and federal wiretap laws, as well as consumer protection statutes, by having human analysts listen to the health care workers’ communication up to 19 times per day for several years, Law360 reported.

“Amazon stores, retains, and analyzes recordings of conversations that users never intended for Alexa to hear,” the class action lawsuit says.

The health care workers say in the claim that when they bought the devices, Amazon said “that Alexa Devices activate only upon hearing specific ‘wake words.’”

However, a Northwestern University study found that “smart speakers, including Alexa Devices, frequently wake up and start recording without the presence of a ‘wake word'” — as often as 19 times a day, and on average, around 1.5 times a day, Law360 reported.

“On average, every single day Alexa Devices are recording at least one private conversation,” the class action lawsuit alleges. The devices are not only capturing the private conversations of Alexa users, they are also recording and permanently storing the voices of other household members and guests, the claim says.

The health care workers say that they would never have bought the devices if they’d known their conversations “would be recorded and stored even when speaking at a distance and not intending to speak to Alexa at all.”

The class action lawsuit contends that Amazon knew its devices were being activated by words other than those intended, and were recording users’ voices without their consent.

“(Amazon) failed to disclose it permanently stored, listened to and used recordings of these unintentional interactions” or that it “uses human and artificial intelligence analysts to listen to, interpret, and evaluate these records and otherwise uses these recordings for its own business purposes,” the claim alleges, adding that rather than remedy the situation Amazon has sought to expand it.

According to Washington state law, all parties on a phone call or in conversation must give permission to be recorded, the claim states, and on top of not asking for consent, Amazon didn’t allow users to delete all of the information obtained from its listening devices until 2019.

The health care workers want to represent adults who owned and used an Alexa device or app in the past four years. The class action lawsuit is one of three the tech giant is facing in Washington for similar claims, and there are similar cases pending in California, Massachusetts, and Illinois.

Did you know Alexa devices could record your conversations without warning? Let us know in the comments section!

The health care workers are represented by Jason T. Dennet and Kaleigh N. Powell of Tousley Brain Stephans PLLC, and Zimmerman Reed LLP. The Alexa Health Care Workers Recording Class Action Lawsuit is Joan Scott et al. v. Amazon.com Inc., Case No. 2:21-cv-00883, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

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