Page 112 - PCWorld (September 2019)

HERE’S HOW PROTECT YOUR SMART SPEAKER RECORDINGS

disclaimers) to “help improve
our services.”

In other words, someone may
be listening, and while it’s a given

that smart assistants like Alexa and
Google Assistant can’t improve
without help from humans (go.

pcworld.com/lsen) analyzing their
accuracy, tech companies need to
do a far better job of telling users You can opt out of “manual review” of your Alexa voice

what they’re up to. recordings by toggling off this setting.
In the wake of revelations that
Apple was letting contractors listen to Siri Tap Manage How Your Data Improves

recordings (go.pcworld.com/ltcn) without Alexa, then turn off the toggle next to Help
properly notifying users, Amazon and Improve Amazon Services and Develop

Google are rolling out new privacy settings New Features.
(go.pcworld.com/news) that let you “opt While you’re at it, you can block Amazon
out” of allowing third parties from reviewing from reviewing transcriptions of messages you

your Alexa and Assistant voice recordings. send with Alexa by disabling the toggles next
Both Apple and Google have

suspended their respective “grading”
programs (go.pcworld.com/susp) pending
a review and Apple has promised to

eventually launch new privacy settings to
allow users to keep anyone else from

hearing their Siri voice recordings.
But if you’re an Amazon Echo or Google
Home user, you can shut the door on

“human review” of your voice recordings
right now. Here’s how to do it.

AMAZON ALEXA

While Google has suspended manual review of
Open the Amazon Alexa app for Android or
Assistant voice recordings, you can still “pause”
iOS, then tap Menu > Settings > Alexa Privacy. any human analysis of your voice activity.

110 PCWorld SEPTEMBER 2019