Your Voice Assistant Doesn't Just Mishear You Sometimes. It's Listening Even When It Shouldn't Be.

In March 2025, Amazon quietly removed the one setting that kept some Echo recordings off its servers entirely — because its new AI needs the cloud to work. A peer-reviewed study found smart speakers wake up and start recording by accident 1.43 times per 10,000 words spoken near them, some clips running past 10 seconds, and which device falsely wakes often can't be predicted in advance. Amazon and Apple have both paid settlements or penalties over what their devices recorded and who heard it. None of the three major assistant makers will say how often police have asked for your voice data — because none of them track it as its own category.