Does Amazon’s Alexa capture audio recorded in Australian homes?
The short answer is: Yes and no. Amazon uses every opportunity to put a product before a customer. For that, it needs data.
The digital audio assistant Alexa listens on a loop for the awake word, which is “Alexa” or something else the user has established.
The question then asked is converted to text and an AI then works its magic to formulate a reply.
But what happens to all those questions? Does Amazon store them?
ALP Senator Varun Ghosh raised the issue at a hearing of a federal parliamentary inquiry, the Select Committee on Adopting Artificial Intelligence.
Being questioned was Matt Levey, head of public policy, Australia and New Zealand, Amazon.
“The way in which Alexa works is it doesn't record any voice data until it hears the wake word, which is a word which the user of the device has specified,” said Levey.
“At that time, the device listens to the user's request and uses AI technology to put it in the right context.
“To go specifically to your question, Amazon does use some limited number of voice recordings at a global level to improve the service. That's something which all customers have the opportunity or the ability to opt out of.
“On your specific question of whether that applies to Australian customers, I don't have that data. We do use voice recordings to improve the service; that's correct. That's clearly stated in the terms of use.”
The senator asked if there was a difference in the Alexa physical model or software that's supplied to Australian homes, American homes or others around the world?
“Certainly in some respects Alexa is localised in terms of the content, in terms of providing responses that are relevant to the country where people are using it, in terms of the language model, understanding the vernacular,” Levey said.
“Yes, there are certainly elements which are localised. To your question, there would undoubtedly be other elements in the hardware and software which are more consistent across different countries.”
Levey said Alexa, when formulating responses, draws on some licensed content to give relevant replies.
“In some cases, it does it drawing on content which Amazon itself has created, and it also draws on publicly available content,” Levey said.
Amazon has deals with the ABC, news.com.au and with other news providers. The terms of those contracts aren’t known and those executives appearing before the inquiry said they were not familiar with the details.
“My understanding is that we're licensing that data in order to provide responses when Australians ask a relevant question to an Alexa device in Australia,” Levey said.
“I don't know if that contract provides additional uses—and I certainly don't want to speculate and give you any incorrect information—but that's the purpose of licensing the data. It's not a licence, as I understand it, that applies to any other Amazon service in any way.
Levey said the driver for innovation at Amazon is to improve the customer experience. A recommendation engine is about trying to show people what they want to buy, and to do that in the most accurate and efficient way.
“Our privacy statement does set out very clearly the ways in which Amazon seeks to legitimately use customer data,” Levey said.
‘It's got a focus on transparency and control. Just on that point of control, as I mentioned earlier, any Alexa user is able to control the way in which their data is used.
“Any Alexa user or user of our other services is able to go in and delete that data at any time, whether that's on our store, Alexa, Prime video or another service.
“There is certainly an ability that we work very hard on for users to be in control of their own data.”
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