Quote:Amazon’s acknowledgment that it saves Alexa voice recordings – even sometimes after consumers manually delete their interaction history – has thrust voice assistant privacy policies into the spotlight once again.

Amazon has acknowledged that it retains the voice recordings and transcripts of customers’ interactions with its Alexa voice assistant indefinitely. The admission raises questions about how long companies should be able to save highly-personal data collected from voice assistant devices.

After U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) demanded Amazon outline its data privacy policies, Amazon in a letter that was publicly disclosed on Tuesday said that consumers have the option to delete their recordings – but even if they do, the company or third-party developers may still save records of customers’ interactions with Alexa.