---
title: "You Can Now Tell Alexa to Delete Everything You Said Today"
description: "Amazon's new privacy updates for its Alexa voice assistant are a step in the right direction, but the company still has a lot of ground to make up."
date: "2019-05-29"
modified: "2019-05-29"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/tell-alexa-delete-everything"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
tags:
  - "Alexa"
  - "Amazon"
  - "privacy"
  - "the digest"
---

# You Can Now Tell Alexa to Delete Everything You Said Today

![Amazon's new privacy updates for its Alexa voice assistant are a step in the right direction, but the company still has a lot of ground to make up.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/tell-alexa-delete-everything.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Always Listening

It's no secret that Amazon's Alexa voice assistant [records everything](<https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/05/06/alexa-has-been-eavesdropping-you-this-whole-time/?utm_term=.be8ed09f471d>) said to it, and the company hasn't made it easy to [delete those recordings](<https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/29/18644027/amazon-alexa-delete-voice-recordings-command-privacy-hub>) — you either have to erase each utterance individually or visit Amazon’s website to delete the whole trove of recordings at once.

But [as of Wednesday](<https://press.aboutamazon.com/news-releases/news-release-details/amazon-introduces-echo-show-5-compact-design-rich-sound-and>), a new feature on all Alexa-enabled devices lets you delete a day's worth of commands in one fell swoop by saying "Alexa, delete everything I said today." It's a step in the right direction, but it feels more like a minor concession in the face of [criticism](<https://gizmodo.com/the-terrible-truth-about-alexa-1834075404>) than a sign Amazon is truly ready to give users control over their data.

## Bury the Lede

The daily data cleanse isn't the only privacy-related update Amazon announced on Wednesday. It also noted the creation of a new Alexa Privacy Hub, which contains information on Amazon's Echo devices. A feature that will let you delete only your last command is also "coming soon," according to Amazon.

While these updates are a step in the right direction, Amazon still has a [lot of ground](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/amazon-alexa-echo-kids-privacy>) to [make up](<https://futurism.com/amazon-echo-recorded-sent-audio>) in terms of [violating users' privacy](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/amazon-listen-share-alexa-recordings>).

And the fact that the company chose to bury the news of these new privacy options in a single paragraph near the bottom of a [press release](<https://press.aboutamazon.com/news-releases/news-release-details/amazon-introduces-echo-show-5-compact-design-rich-sound-and>) announcing the creation of yet another Echo device doesn't exactly inspire confidence that it suddenly views privacy as a top priority.

**READ MORE:** [Amazon now lets you tell Alexa to delete your voice recordings](<https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/29/18644027/amazon-alexa-delete-voice-recordings-command-privacy-hub>) \[*The Verge*\]

**More on Amazon:** *[Amazon Workers Listen to Your Alexa Conversations, Then Mock Them](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/amazon-listen-share-alexa-recordings>)*

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)