Amazon Is Accused of Violating Kids’ Privacy With Smart Speakers

Amazon, already under fire this year for employing teams of people to listen into Echo voice recordings to help train the system's AI and fill in gaps in its understanding, has now been accused of spying on our kids as well. The company's family-friendly Echo Dot Kids has been accused of listening in when it shouldn't, and even keeping recordings made by the devices after parents have tried to delete them.

Many smart-speaker owners don’t realize it," reported the Washington Post this week, "but Amazon keeps a copy of everything Alexa records after it hears its name. Apple’s Siri, and until recently Google’s Assistant, by default also keep recordings to help train their artificial intelligence."

The smart speaker market is forecast to hit 200 million globally this year and 500 million by 2023. The Echo Dot Kids is an attempt by Amazon to broaden the market still further, in what was claimed and should be a family-friendly, secure and safe way. Apparently not. The Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood has published the results of an investigation into Echo Dots Kids and is "calling on the FTC to investigate Amazon for this and other blatant violations of children’s privacy law ."

The news that Amazon had people actually listening in was disturbing enough, especially with claims that staff had heard crimes and assaults being committed but were powerless to act or trace the source. The extension of this type of privacy breach into our children's bedrooms and private lives will take such angst significantly further.

The investigation "revealed that Echo Dot Kids... violates the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in many ways. Amazon collects sensitive personal information from kids, including their voice recordings and data gleaned from kids’ viewing, reading, listening, and purchasing habits, and retains it indefinitely."

The most disturbing allegation is that "Amazon retains children’s data even after parents believe they have deleted it." The investigation published a video demonstrating this. "Parents," CCFC states, "not Jeff Bezos, should be in charge of children’s data. The FTC must hold Amazon accountable for blatantly violating children’s privacy law and putting kids at risk."

"If privacy experts can’t make heads or tails of Amazon’s privacy policy labyrinth," said CCFC Board Member Angela Campbell, "how can a parent meaningfully consent to the collection of their children’s data?"

This complaint to the FTC follows a warning issued by the advocacy group last year, " Amazon wants kids to be dependent on its data-gathering device from the moment they wake up until they go to bed at night,” CCFC Executive Director Josh Golin said at the time. "The Echo Dot Kids is another unnecessary ‘must-have’ gadget, and it’s also potentially harmful. AI devices raise a host of privacy concerns and interfere with the face-to-face interactions and self-driven play that children need to thrive."

Now, the formal complaint claims that "t he Echo Dot Kids Edition records children’s voices any time it hears the wake word, and it stores these recordings in the cloud unless or until a parent deletes them... Amazon also uses persistent identifiers to track how a child uses Echo and can use that information to recommend other content that the child might enjoy. Amazon may collect other types of personal information when children ask the Echo to remember something, or when a kid skill solicits an open-ended communication from a child." 

A number of U.S. senators who have previously advocated for online child protection reportedly plan to write to the FTC on Thursday, saying that "c hildren are a uniquely vulnerable population, and we urge the Commission to take all necessary steps to ensure their privacy."
A spokesperson for Amazon said the company complies with federal privacy laws and that its policies are disclosed on its website.