I am one of those Americans who are adding smart speakers to the house. We started with an Amazon Echo in the kitchen then liked it so much we added Dots to other rooms in the house.
And yes, I hear the privacy concerns. We've talked about them extensively on the show. The fact is that Iowans, like me, are aware of the concerns but still want the convenience of having a smart speaker around.
Amazon has heard the concerns and is trying to strike that balance.
With a simple phrase you can now relax about whether your talking around Alexa will be recorded and stored.
Amazon is responding to big privacy concerns by adding a delete voice command. Now, all people have to do is say, "Alexa, delete everything I said today," and the company says it will delete the day's recordings.
The company is also working on allowing anyone to delete their last statement by saying, "Alexa, delete what I just said." Amazon officials said that feature should be added soon. Previously Echo users had to go to a web interface to delete a day's recordings.
In case you didn’t know, there are already ways with the various AI assistants like Siri, Cortana, Bixby and others.
It’s a good thing they rolled this out, because California just passed an anti-eavesdropping bill! That makes voice recordings without consent illegal.
BTW, one of the coolest features of your Amazon Echo is that you can set a reminder to listen to WHO Radio. We are streaming 24/7 in real time on your smart speaker.