Alexa is always listening—and she records everything you say after she hears her name (or “wake word”). If you want to protect your privacy, here’s how to review, delete, and manage your Alexa voice recording history settings.
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How to Delete Alexa History with Voice Commands
To delete your Alexa history, simply say “Alexa, delete what I just said.” Then, Alexa will respond, “Okay, I’ll delete any recordings from the last 10 minutes.” Alternatively, you can say, “Alexa, delete everything I said today” to remove all history for the day.
Note: When you delete your Alexa history, Amazon will retain a text transcript of your voice recordings for 30 days after deletion.
How to Delete Alexa History in the App
To delete your voice recording history, open the Alexa app and tap the three-line icon at the bottom of your screen. Then, go to “Alexa Privacy” and select “Review Voice and Text History.” Finally, select a voice recording and tap “Delete recording.”
You can also delete your Alexa history using a web browser at amazon.com/alexaprivacysettings. Start from step #4 below.
- Open the Alexa app.
- Select “More” (the three-line icon at the bottom of your screen).
- Tap “Alexa Privacy.”
- Select “Review Voice and Text History.”
- Select a voice recording and tap “Delete recording.” If you want to train Alexa to understand you better, you can tap the thumbs up or thumbs down buttons.
Note: You can only delete your Alexa history from a device that’s plugged in and connected to WiFi.
Note: You can also tap “Delete all recordings and typed requests to Alexa from today.”
To delete all your Alexa history, tap the filter icon, choose “All History,” then select a device or user.
Next, tap “Delete all of my recordings and typed requests to Alexa on device [name of your Alexa device].” Finally, tap “Delete” to remove all your Alexa history from that device or user.
How to Change Your Alexa Privacy Settings
To change your settings, open the Alexa app and go to “More > Alexa Privacy.” From this screen, you can check your smart home activity, change your Alexa skill permissions, or enable Alexa to automatically delete recordings after a set amount of time.
Review History of Detected Sounds
Find and delete sounds detected by your Alexa devices, like glass breaking or your smoke alarm going off.
Review Smart Home Device History
Review Alexa’s logs of your smart home device activity, like your smart lights turning on or off.
Note: To delete these recordings, tap “Manage my smart home device history.” Then go to the “Smart Home Device History” category and select “One-time deletion of history.”
Review Activity History
See the history of all your timers, alarms, flash briefings, and other activities from your Alexa devices. Select one and tap “Remove card” to delete the activity.
Manage Skill Permissions and Ad Preferences
See what permissions your Alexa skills and ads have. Select one to enable or disable them from accessing your personal data, such as your address, email, phone number, and more.
Read More: How to Cancel Alexa Skills and Subscriptions
Manage Your Alexa Data
Change your Alexa history settings. For example, you can enable your history to be deleted with voice recordings, set how long your Alexa devices save your voice recordings, turn off voice purchasing, and more.
