Alexa, were you spying on us? Amazon faces class action lawsuit

Tens of millions of Alexa users have just got the green light to sue Amazon for allegedly recording their private conversations.

Alexa might've crossed the line in the battle between convenience and privacy. If you’ve ever said “Alexa” inside your home, your voice may be part of a vast and largely undisclosed data harvesting.

A federal judge in Seattle has ruled that tens of millions of Amazon Alexa users can unite in a massive class-action lawsuit accusing the tech behemoth of covertly recording their private conversations. Not disclosing that information properly violates Washington’s consumer protection law.

The class-action status granted by US District Judge Robert Lasnik means that Alexa users across the US can sue Amazon collectively for monetary damages and seek a court order to halt privacy violations.

According to the lawsuit filed in 2021, Alexa’s design “illegally and surreptitiously” recorded private conversations. Amazon has denied any wrongdoing.

The company insisted Alexa only activates with user prompts, doesn’t retain non-relevant audio, and has safeguards to avoid “accidental” recordings.

It said it built Alexa with safeguards specifically to prevent accidental activations. Just last year, reports emerged of employees reviewing voice snippets to “improve the service.”

Alexa faces legal backlash

Amazon introduced Alexa in 2014 as a voice-activated assistant. The company is currently facing legal actions, alleging that its Alexa-powered devices, including the Echo, Echo Dot, and Fire Stick, have illegally recorded and voice-printed minors without parental consent.

The suits, filed in federal courts in Washington and California, argue that these actions violate wiretapping and consent laws in at least nine US states, which require all-party consent for recording private conversations.

In 2023, Amazon paid $25 million to settle FTC charges that it retained children’s voice data in violation of federal child privacy laws.

That same year, it forked over another $5.8 million for security lapses involving its Ring doorbell cameras, bringing the total in privacy-related enforcement actions to over $30 million.