YOUR digital assistant may be recording you without your knowledge, experts have warned.
If you are not careful, your Google Assistant, Siri, and Amazon Alexa might be logging everything you say.
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However, you can adjust your settings to limit what your digital assistant is allowed to do.
Google Assistant
To stop your Android from listening for a “hey Google” command, you can turn this off in your phone’s settings.
Go to your settings and select Google, then click Settings for Google apps > Search > Assistant and Voice > Google Assistant.
Then, click Hey Google & Voice Match, and under the This Device heading, turn off the Hey Google switch by toggling it.
If you wish to further limit Google’s activity (not just Google Assistant), click on the three dots on the top right of the same screen.
Then select Google activity controls.
If you click the Turn off button, it will stop logging your website activity and apps you’ve installed.
If you just wish to stop Google Assistant from storing recordings, you can unselect Include audio recordings.
Read more about Amazon Alexa
Siri
If you are an iPhone user and want Siri to stop listening for you to say “hey Siri”, you can easily disable the assistant in your settings.
Open the Settings app, click Siri & Search, and then turn off the Listen for “Hey Siri” toggle.
To turn off Siri completely, also turn off the toggle switches for Press Side Button for Siri, and Allow Siri When Locked.
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If you wish to keep Siri active, but limit the amount of information it gathers, go back to Siri & Search, and select Siri & Dictation History.
You can select Delete Siri & Dictation History to erase Siri’s history on your device.
If you still wish to use Siri, Apple recently announced that the software now features the option for iPhone users to select a gender-neutral virtual assistant.
Amazon Alexa
Unlike Google Assistant and Siri, Amazon Alexa is not embedded in your phone.
However, the assistant can still keep recordings if you do not adjust its settings.
To change its settings, go on the app and click More > Settings > Alexa Privacy.
To delete specific voice commands, you can click on Review Voice History, where the records will be displayed.
If you wish to stop recordings all together, select Manage Your Alexa Data.
Next, click on Choose how long to save recordings, and then Don’t save recordings.
This option will delete any existing recordings as well.
From the Manage Your Alexa Data menu, scroll down and turn off Use of voice recordings if you do not want your recordings manually reviewed by Amazon.
Amazon has promised that the assistant records your voice simply to “improve the accuracy of your interactions with Alexa.”
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An in-depth guide for limiting the use of all these virtual assistants has also been published by Gizmodo.
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