--- title: Amazon's Alexa Could Be Secretly Recording You. Here's How to Check (and Delete) Those Conversations description: Digital assistants like Amazon's Alexa sometimes record you without your direct knowledge. Here's how to delete and listen to the recordings authors: - name: Alix Langone url: https://money.com/author/alix-langone/ at_money_since: 2018 articles: 187 covers: - Technology - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Personal Finance - Pets - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes former_staff: true published: '2018-05-29T18:52:55.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T10:31:27.000Z' section: Technology tags: - onetime - Tech - Tech word_count: 351 canonical: https://money.com/delete-alexa-history/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Amazon.com Inc. Holds Product Reveal Launch](https://img.money.com/2018/05/how-to-delete-and-listen-to-alexa-recordings.jpg) *An attendee operates the new Amazon.com Inc. Echo device on display during the company's product reveal launch event in downtown Seattle, Washington, U.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017. Amazon unveiled a smaller, cheaper version of its popular Alexa-powered Echo speaker that the e-commerce giant said has better sound.* Amazon's digital assistant, Alexa, can be a little nosy. Sometimes she listens to your conversations when you're not talking to her. Other people who use Alexa, Echo or other smart speakers have shared stories about the devices recorded conservations that they weren't meant to, or even creepier, [sometimes bursting out laughing without warning.](https://time.com/5190044/amazon-alexa-echo-laughing/) While you may not be able to prevent your smart speaker from accidentally picking up some of your conversations, you do have [the ability to delete those conversations](https://time.com/4766611/alexa-takes-the-stand-listening-devices-raise-privacy-issues/) and Alexa's record of voice commands — or just hear the interactions that were recorded. The Alexa app tracks and lists even the small details about the voice commands you make, such as how many times you ask it to play a particular song, how high you ask it to turn the volume up and when you tell it to turn the music off, [according to USA *Today*](https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2018/05/28/how-listen-what-amazon-alexa-has-recorded-your-home/649814002/). There are two options for deleting the recorded Alexa files (which are sent back to Amazon) — you can delete them individually or delete all of them at once in a few easy steps. - To delete all of your recorded Alexa conversations at once, just log into your Amazon account and go to the **"Manage Your Content and Devices"** page. - To delete individual recordings, use the Alexa app on your smartphone or the web app online. - On your smartphone, open the app and click on the **hamburger icon** on the top left. Under menu options, choose the **settings** menu and then choose **history**. ![listen-delete-alexa-recordings-history](https://img.money.com/2018/05/listen-delete-alexa-recordings-history.png) ![listen-delete-alexa-text-not-available-recordings](https://img.money.com/2018/05/listen-delete-alexa-text-not-available-recordings.png) Recordings labeled "text not available" indicate times when Alexa thought you were giving it a command and started recording, but stopped once it realized it may have picked up on a false positive and that you were not actually talking to it. Amazon said deleting Alexa recordings might negatively impact the user experience because it prevents the voice recognition service from learning your particular voice and habits as best it can, according to USA *Today.* But it might be worth deleting those recordings if you want to lower your risk of [co-workers accidentally being sent snippets of your conversations](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/05/24/an-amazon-echo-recorded-a-familys-conversation-then-sent-it-to-a-random-person-in-their-contacts-report-says/). ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/delete-alexa-history/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Technology", "item": "https://money.com/technology/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Smart Home", "item": "https://money.com/smart-home/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Amazon's Alexa Could Be Secretly Recording You. Here's How to Check (and Delete) Those Conversations" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/delete-alexa-history/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/delete-alexa-history/", "name": "Amazon's Alexa Could Be Secretly Recording You. Here's How to Check (and Delete) Those Conversations", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2018-05-29T18:52:55.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/delete-alexa-history/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/delete-alexa-history/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T10:31:27.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Amazon's Alexa Could Be Secretly Recording You. Here's How to Check (and Delete) Those Conversations", "articleSection": "Technology", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2018/05/how-to-delete-and-listen-to-alexa-recordings.jpg", "width": 4000, "height": 2670 }, { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2018/05/listen-delete-alexa-recordings-history.png", "width": 800, "height": 996 }, { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2018/05/listen-delete-alexa-text-not-available-recordings.png", "width": 800, "height": 996 } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Alix Langone", "url": "https://money.com/author/alix-langone/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/alix-langone/#author" } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2018-05-29T18:52:55.000Z", "description": "Digital assistants like Amazon's Alexa sometimes record you without your direct knowledge. Here's how to delete and listen to the recordings", "abstract": "Digital assistants like Amazon's Alexa sometimes record you without your direct knowledge. Here's how to delete and listen to the recordings", "@id": "https://money.com/delete-alexa-history/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-17T10:31:27.000Z", "wordCount": 351, "keywords": [ "onetime", "Tech", "Tech" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Technology", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Home automation", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_automation" ] } ] } ] } ```