Amazon is taking away device processing for Alexa voice recordings and moving exclusively to full cloud storage. Everything from this is being touted by the company to improve Alexa’s performance — but privacy concerns are growing. The concern with data security and increased dependence on cloud servers is another matter of concern among users. Millions of Echo users are being affected by this change which is a growing concern regarding a smart home's privacy.

Highlights:

• Amazon Echo will no longer store voice recordings on the device.
• Alexa's processing will now rely entirely on cloud-based servers.
• Privacy concerns arise due to increased data transmission.
• Amazon claims improved responsiveness with this transition.
• Users may need to rethink smart home security.

It also means that with Amazon’s removal of on device processing, all voice recordings entered will go to the cloud. Such an occurrence raises worries regarding security risk as more data is transmitted online. Amazon promises the tight security of the system, and privacy advocates say that storing data like that centralizes it, making it more vulnerable to data breaches or unauthorized access.

Amazon hopes to improve Alexa’s efficiency and accuracy by shifting entirely to cloud based processing. Nevertheless, this makes data management impossible locally and disallows user control. It’s not unlike many users who want privacy and will balk at this backlash, as cloud servers continue to play a larger role in smart homes.

Privacy experts say cloud processing makes user data more susceptible to third party access. The problem, however, is that as companies collect an ever greater amount of voice data, the possibility of misuse only goes up. On the other hand, some users could disable voice recordings or reconsider if they’re so hooked on smart home devices that shouldn’t be user-controlled anyway.