Amazon employees have access to location data Alexa users

Amazon employees who train digital assistant Alexa’s algorithm by tapping recordings have access to location data. This allows them to find out where users of the service live.

Access to other data is limited, but location data is still available, Bloomberg writes. This is done with coordinates that employees in map programs can convert into an exact location on a map. Data about a residential address are considered privacy-sensitive data. Alexa uses the location of users to, for example, show nearby shops or restaurants.

There is no indication that employees have misused the data to trace owners. According to several employees, almost all colleagues could see much more data until a year ago, including all contacts that a person had shared with Alexa. That access is now limited to far fewer employees and has been further restricted after it was announced two weeks ago that employees could listen in.

The employees listen in on voice commands and the answers from Alexa to see if the digital assistant gives correct answers and how the software should interpret certain voice commands. This also happens at Google and Apple, although they limit access to data even further. The team that does it is on three different continents and in various countries.

Amazon has issued a response to the story that does not confirm or deny the information. “We regularly review employee access to internal tools and restrict access whenever and wherever we can,” the company said. Alexa collects data about customers to be able to make more targeted recommendations with voice commands and to show more targeted advertisements that should entice consumers to make more purchases at the web store.