Adios Alexa!
Au revoir, Tschüss, Arrivederci, Bye-bye Ms. American Pie, Good Riddance to Bad Cyber Rubbish!
Back in March (which seems like a hundred years ago) Amazon announced it would no longer delete commands to the device on a daily basis, but instead would “send it to the cloud”. This sounds like a euphemism for heaven, or Rover crossing the rainbow bridge. But, no, the purpose of keeping all this data is to “to train Alexa Plus to hold better conversations and understand people more accurately”, i.e., plug all your information into their Large Language Model (AI) to teach the new and improved Alexa to have better chats with you.
For the record, I was an early and often adopter of Alexa. I had three devices: Echo Show (the BIG one), Echo Smart Speaker, and Echo Dot which had a clock in it. The devices allowed me to dictate shopping lists, to-do lists, and reminders (SHARON! TAKE THE GARBAGE OUT!) It also conducted searches for recipes with ingredients I had in the house that did not require 10 pounds of some vegetable I never heard of, much less be able to recognize in a line-up. She was darned convenient, and she had a pleasant voice.
When she arrived, I taped a cover over the camera on the Echo Show. I bought the device; I gave it default permission to take photos in my home. My friends and family, however, had not given Amazon permission to take and use their photos. Hence, her all-seeing eye was blinded, but she kept “listening for the wake word”. At times, she mistook any words with the EX-combination or similar sounding words as her wake word. It was funny—at the time.
I knew Alexa was created to be a shopping tool—but she could also play my favorite stations and give me dance music (not that I’m a good dancer, I look like I’m having a seizure while standing). When playing music, she would often say (paraphrasing), “Hey, Sharon, don’t you want to buy our unlimited music package?” I would say no and keep dancing.
Alexa was great entertainment for the kids. Ask her for a knock-knock joke about Batman and she had a zillion thigh-slappers that often dumped on Robin. A kid’s delight. But then, she started asking me to set up shopping lists for children for summer, spring, winter, and back-to-school. I would say no and let the kids keep demanding knock-knock jokes.
Then Alexa started creeping into my shopping cart, scanning my history, and saying, “Based on your previous orders, you’re due for more coffee! Buy it now!” Alexa became the nudgy door-to-door salesperson who stuck her foot in the door and WOULD NOT STOP SELLING. I said, “Alexa, you’re annoying.” Her response? “That’s not nice.”
Since when did Alexa care if someone hurt her feelings? She was another robot, like my trio of Roombas, wasn’t she? Or was she turning into HAL, refusing to open the pod bay doors?
At turns helpful and annoying, my relationship with Alexa was complicated. Then came the announcement from Amazon in March and our tumultuous times were over. All the devices, Echo Show, Dot, and Speaker went into my old technology drawer. There they met Palm Pilot, dead iPads, and every cable I will not throw away because I might need them “sometime.”
It has been about four months since I unplugged and I don’t miss Alexa’s nagging, hurt feelings, and “inadvertent” eavesdropping. I have found other ways to create shopping lists, to-do lists, and reminders using old technology: pad, pen, and a calendar. I can still look up recipes online, as well as anything else I might need to know. I did not give up the Internet. I gave up a shopping tool that had become larger than life and more invasive than helpful.
How do I feel about all this? If you’ve ever read The Berenstain Bears and Too Much TV (one of my grandkids’ favorite stories), I’m a bit like Mama Bear: she didn’t hate TV, she hated the TV habit. I’m not against shopping online; I’m against the habit of relying on these intrusive devices.
Now there’s news that Alexa Plus will be bringing ADVERTISEMENTS to her interactions with users. Why is Amazon doing all of this? Because they are losing money on Alexa, as in BILLIONS of dollars. Do I feel sorry for Amazon and Jeff Bezos? Absolutely not.
The company took an innovative idea, a device to help people shop, and turned it into a surveillance tool.
Here are some healthy benefits I’ve found from saying Adios, Alexa:
I now have a Bose radio in my kitchen—pre-set with all my favorite stations. I can still dance to them. Just don’t look!
My beautiful, untouched cookbooks are getting greater use!
My grandkids now must read a book or magazine, memorize, and tell me their knock-knock jokes!
I have rediscovered the joy of scratching things off a list as I complete them.
I saved money by not automatically saying “Yes” to the salesperson—and by deleting subscriptions that filled my closets while draining my wallet.
I am getting out of the house more and going to a physical grocery store (LIDL for the win!) Yes, I still mask. I’m THAT woman.
I have tracked down the small businesses I was supporting via Amazon and supported them directly.
I have more PRIVACY! In this era of increasingly intrusive devices (Ray Ban Meta Sunglasses, anyone?)
Peace of mind when speaking. I can say election, lexicon, electricity, and a host of other words without waking the snooping giantess
In this Orwellian time, it’s increasingly important to protect what privacy we have—or risk losing it by handing over our daily thoughts.
References for this post along with other resources
Daniel, W. (2024, June 24). Amazon’s money-bleeding Alexa division could face more cuts if a paid version of its AI-enabled voice assistant flops, BofA says. https://fortune.com/2024/06/24/amazon-ai-enabled-remarkable-alexa-paid-version-subscription-investment-cuts/
Federal Trade Commission (FTC). FTC and DOJ charge Amazon with violating children’s privacy law by keeping kids’ Alexa voice recordings forever and undermining parents’ deletion requests. Proposed order to require Amazon to pay $25 million and delete children’s data, geolocation data, and other voice recordings. (2023, May 1). https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/05/ftc-doj-charge-amazon-violating-childrens-privacy-law-keeping-kids-alexa-voice-recordings-forever
Koebler, J. (2025, August 7). A CBP agent wore Meta Smart Glasses to an immigration raid in Los Angeles. https://www.404media.co/a-cbp-agent-wore-meta-smart-glasses-to-an-immigration-raid-in-los-angeles/?ref=daily-stories-newsletter
Lacoma, T. (2025, March 28). Amazon's privacy ultimatum starts today: Let Echo devices process your data or stop using Alexa. https://www.cnet.com/home/security/a-privacy-ultimatum-starts-today-let-amazon-echo-process-your-data-or-stop-using-it/
Meyer, M. (2025, August 4). Amazon might bring ads to Alexa Plus: Here's what that could mean for you https://www.cnet.com/home/smart-home/amazon-might-bring-ads-to-alexa-plus-heres-what-that-could-mean-for-you/
I use alexa for timers and such other wise I didnt upgrade.