Report: Amazon and third parties use Alexa voice data for ads while Siri respects privacy

A new study digging into how Amazon uses Alexa voice recordings from its customers has concluded that the company and third parties leverage the audio to deliver targeted ads directly on Echo smart speakers as well as the web. That’s in contrast to Apple not using Siri recordings for ads and sharing voice data being turned off by default on devices like HomePod and iPhone since 2019. However, Amazon contends the new research is based on “inaccurate inferences or speculation.”

Reported by The Verge, the new study: Your Echos are Heard: Tracking, Profiling, and Ad Targeting in the Amazon Smart Speaker Ecosystem was done by researchers at the University of Washington, UC Davis, UC Irvine, and Northeastern University.

At a high level, the research concluded that Amazon and third parties are collecting and sharing Alexa voice interactions from Echo speakers with up to 41 different advertising partners. This data can be used to “infer” user preferences and deliver targeted ads across Echo speakers, as well as the internet. This voice data appears to be highly lucrative with the study claiming smart speaker interactions get “30X higher ad bids from advertisers.”

Responding to The Verge, Amazon spokesperson Lauren Raemhild said the company does use Alexa voice data to place relevant ads on Amazon and other places it has ads.

As an analogy to the experience you would have if your order was placed on Amazon.com, or a song requested through Amazon Music. If you ask Alexa for paper towels, or for a song to be played on Amazon Music then Amazon’s record may help you to find relevant ads on Amazon.com and other websites where Amazon has ads.

Raemhild confirmed that it also uses targeted ads on Echo smart speakers for customers who use premium, ad-supported content .”

The study said it found it was only processed transcripts of Alexa data that were being shared not raw audio, which lines up with what Amazon says.

However, the research raised questions about how transparent Amazon is with Alexa voice data. All third-party Alexa Skills that gather personal information are required to post privacy policies.

However, the report found that those policies were spotty at best, with more than 70 percent of the skills it examined not even mentioning Alexa or Amazon, and only 10 skills (2. 2 percent) being clear about data collection practices in their privacy policies.

The researchers concluded that there was a need for more transparency and control in data collection, sharing and use of smart speaker platforms and third-party skills. .”

For its part, Amazon’s Raemhild said:

Many of the conclusions drawn in this research were based on speculation or incorrect inferences by the authors and don’t accurately represent how Alexa operates.

…

We are not in the business of selling our customers’ personal information and we do not share Alexa requests with advertising networks.

Privacy with Siri

While the study didn’t mention Apple and Siri, the research creates a distinction between how Apple and companies like Amazon may handle sensitive data.

Apple did land in some hot water back in 2019 when it was discovered that it was using <1% of Siri recordings to help improve the virtual assistant but it wasn't using the data for ads or sharing it with partners.

And in late 2019, Apple shifted sharing Siri recordings to be opt-in. That means Siri recordings are not shared by default and users have full control of the privacy feature (Settings > Privacy > Analytics & Improvements > Improve Siri & Dictation).

Note: there was a bug with this in iOS 15 which Apple resolved in iOS 15.4.