(Photo: Emily Zanott)
By: Natalia Zreliak, Digital Editor
“Hey Siri, are you always listening?”
Voice technology has made our lives easier, no longer do you need to type your silly questions instead you can just ask Siri, Alexa, Cortana, or Google out loud. Virtual assistants are extremely popular right now but just how much are they hearing and what happens to the audio files they gather?
The Amazon Echo keeps an audio recording of all voice commands that have been given to Alexa, the digital assistant. Amazon also reports that there is a small second of audio before the wake-up call is issued to the Amazon Echo. You can, however, check and delete your Amazon Echo recordings but you might be shocked just how much was heard.
Google just recently launched a new My Account section that gives users the ability to delete recordings or tell the assistant to stop recording users voices altogether. This seems to be a step in the right direction but time will tell. For now, it is important for users to be aware of their digital assistants and any apps that may have access to your microphone.