Healthcare workers say Alexa may have been spying on them, listening in on potentially confidential communications, in a lawsuit filed in federal court this week.
Among the plaintiffs in the class action are a mental health counselor and medical customer service specialist who believe Alexa could have recorded their conversations about HIPAA-protected information.
“Amazon’s conduct in surreptitiously recording consumers has violated federal and state wiretapping, privacy, and consumer protection laws,” said the legal action brought in Washington state.
The plaintiffs argue Amazon did not fully disclose to customers how it uses Alexa recordings, storing and analyzing the media. The suit said the healthcare workers would have made different decisions had they been aware of Amazon’s practice. Some of the healthcare workers stopped using the devices or purchased newer models that included a mute function.
The lawsuit points to a Northeastern University study where researchers found recordings prompted by “wake words” that were long enough to include protected information.
Amazon allows customers to opt-out of having their data transcribed by humans and can set recordings to delete at set intervals.
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“By then, Amazon’s analysts may have already listened to the recordings before that ability was enabled,” attorneys argue in the suit.
"Had Plaintiffs known that Amazon permanently stored and listed [sic] to recordings made by its Alexa device, Plaintiffs would have either not purchased the Alexa Device or demanded to pay less," it continued.