​​Amazon Hit With Another Class Action Lawsuit Over Alexa Voice Recordings

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Amazon has been hit with another class action lawsuit in the fallout from reports its Alexa device records users’ conversations without warning or consent.

The class action lawsuit was filed in Seattle on July 8 by lead Plaintiff Carol Cooper who alleges the company violates Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).

Cooper says her Alexa captured and stored her biometric data in the form of her voice recordings without her consent, and then disseminated them to third parties.

According to the class action lawsuit, despite Amazon’s claim that Alexa only captures conversations after hearing the “wake word,” reports and studies have shown that Alexa-enabled devices frequently capture conversations by accident without being triggered by the “wake word.”

The claim cites research that discovered more than 1,000 sequences of words that incorrectly trigger smart speakers, such as Alexa. For example, Alexa may inadvertently be activated by the words “unacceptable” or “election.”

The claim adds that after a user speaks to an Alexa device, Amazon collects, captures, and stores voiceprints of the user, and transcriptions of the voiceprints, and it does not delete the voiceprint or the transcription created by that request.

“Instead, Amazon captures, collects, and indefinitely retains the voiceprint on its servers for continued use and analysis, in order to, inter alia, improve its speech and voice recognition capabilities,” the claim alleges.

According to Cooper, Amazon violates BIPA by obtaining, using and storing biometric identifiers without first obtaining a written release; not properly informing users in writing that their biometric identifiers was being collected and stored, or for how long; not developing a written policy establishing a retention schedule and guidelines for permanently destroying biometric identifiers; and selling and profiting users biometric data.

“In Amazon’s case, Alexa’s machine learning is bolstered by what likely amounts to hundreds of millions, if not billions, of voiceprints that Amazon has stored on its servers, which it uses to constantly refine the natural language understanding that is critical to Alexa’s function,” the claim reads.

The class action lawsuit cites an article by Bloomberg that says that Amazon.com, Inc. employs thousands of people around the world, both full-time Amazon employees and third-party contractors, who listen to voice recordings, have access to voiceprints, and review the transcriptions captured by Amazon’s Echo device.

“The teams also use internal chat rooms to share audio files ‘when they need help parsing a muddled word—or come across an amusing recording,’” according to the claim.

Cooper also alleges that users’ voiceprints are aggregated with data from other Amazon sources, such as the shopping history, order history, or reminders to create profiles of information for Amazon to utilize for its own business purposes.

Coopers wants to represent anyone in Illinois who owns an Alexa device. She is suing for violation of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act and seeks damages, an order of enjoinment, interest, legal costs and fees, and a jury trial.

In June, the company was hit with another class action lawsuit over the same issue, with plaintiffs saying Amazon’s Alexa device eavesdrops on private conversations, records and stores them on an Amazon server for the multinational company to use at its will.

Did you know your Alexa device could be recording you without your permission? Let us know in the comments section!

Cooper is represented by Jason T. Dennett and Cecily C. Shiel of Tousley Brain Stephens PLLC; Thomas P. Rosenfeld, Kevin P. Green, and Zachary T. Shelton of Goldenberg Heller & Antognoli, P.C.; and James P. Frickleton, Edward D. Robertson, Jr., and Edward D. Robertson III of Bartimus Frickleton Robertson Rader, P.C.

The Alexa BIPA Class Action Lawsuit is Carol Cooper v. Amazon.com Inc., Case No. 2:21-cv-00915 in the U.S. District Court For The Western District Of Washington At Seattle.

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