Amazon's famous voice assistant Alexa could be storing recordings of children illegally during their interactions with the the company's Echo speakers.
Two lawsuits, filed in Seattle and Los Angeles, name nine U.S. states where it is illegal to record a conversation with children without their parent's consent. The lawsuits come before Amazon releases its new multicolored Alexa Dot Kids Edition.
"When a child says a wake word to an Alexa device, the device records and transmits the children's communications in the same manner that it handles adults' communications. Neither the children nor their parents have consented to the children's interactions being permanently recorded," the lawsuit says. A wake word is directed at Alexa to get it to carry out a command and is commonly Alexa, Amazon or other names.
The lawsuit adds that the recordings being stored by Alexa could buld up a "vast level of detail about the child's life."
Amazon has struck back at the allegations, saying that parents can delete recordings in the device and the recordings only are carried out with the device owner's permission.
The Alexa voice assistant was first announced in November 2014. Alexa can be used for playing music, ordering food, getting the weather and other functions, all with one's voice.
This article was first published in IBTimes US. Permission required for reproduction.
