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Runaway1956 [soylentnews.org] writes:

Amazon’s Alexa is the target of a pair of lawsuits that allege the voice assistant violates laws in nine states by illegally storing recordings of children on devices such as the Echo or Echo Dot.

It’s the latest development in an ongoing debate around Alexa and privacy.

The suits were filed in courts in Seattle and Los Angeles on Tuesday, on the eve of Amazon unveiling the latest generation of Echo Dot Kids Edition smart speaker.

Announcing the new version of the devices on Wednesday morning, the company attempted to defuse privacy concerns — saying it built its premium “FreeTime” games and media service for kids with the input of family groups. Amazon said it adheres to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The company added, “None of the Alexa skills included within FreeTime Unlimited have access to or collect personal information from children, and there are multiple ways to delete a child’s profile or voice recordings.”

However, the suits are about the Alexa assistant and Echo devices more broadly, not just the FreeTime service for kids. The suits name nine states — Florida, California, Illinois, Michigan, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington — that prohibit recording conversations without the consent of children or their parents.

“At no point does Amazon warn unregistered users that it is creating persistent voice recordings of their Alexa interactions, let alone obtain their consent to do so,” the lawsuits allege. The suits were filed in California and Washington state by lawyers from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and Keller Lenkner LLC.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs, who are minors living in Massachusetts and California, suggested several ways in which Amazon might avoid keeping recordings of children. They also noted other voice assistants such as Apple’s Siri that are “less intrusive than Amazon’s Alexa Devices” and delete recordings after a short period of time.

“When children say a wake word to an Alexa Device, the device records and transmits the children’s communications in the same manner that it handles adults’ communications. Neither the children nor their parents have consented to the children’s interactions being permanently recorded,” the lawsuit reads.

https://www.geekwire.com/2019/alexa-illegally-record-children-amazon-sued-allegedly-storing-conversations-without-consent/ [geekwire.com]

A lawsuit filed in Seattle alleges Amazon is recording children who use its Alexa devices without their consent, in violation of laws governing recordings in at least eight states, including Washington.

“Alexa routinely records and voiceprints millions of children without their consent or the consent of their parents,” according to a complaint filed on behalf of a 10-year-old Massachusetts girl on Tuesday in federal court in Seattle. Another nearly identical suit was filed the same day in California Superior Court in Los Angeles, on behalf of an 8-year-old boy.

The federal complaint, which seeks class-action status, describes Amazon’s practice of saving “a permanent recording of the user’s voice” and contrasts that with other makers of voice-controlled computing devices that delete recordings after storing them for a short time or not at all.

The complaint notes that Alexa devices record and transmit any speech captured after a “wake word” activates the device, regardless of the speaker and whether that person purchased the device or installed the associated app.

It says the Alexa system is capable of identifying individual speakers based on their voices and Amazon could choose to inform users who had not previously consented that they were being recorded and ask for consent. It could also deactivate permanent recording for users who had not consented.

“But Alexa does not do this,” the lawsuit claims. “At no point does Amazon warn unregistered users that it is creating persistent voice recordings of their Alexa interactions, let alone obtain their consent to do so.”

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/suit-alleges-amazons-alexa-violates-laws-by-recording-childrens-voices-without-consent/ [seattletimes.com] (note that Seattletimes is doing some asshattery with an overlay, and blurred pages paywall thing - but you can c/p everything into another window to read it)

Other links:

https://bgr.com/2019/06/13/amazon-alexa-recording-children-lawsuit/ [bgr.com]
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazons-alexa-is-illegally-recording-kids-lawsuits-claim-2019-06-13 [marketwatch.com]
https://www.foxnews.com/tech/amazons-alexa-illegally-records-children-without-consent [foxnews.com]

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