Alexa and Google Home Privacy: The Settings Every Senior Should Change Today

Bottom line up front: Your Alexa or Google Home device is always listening for its wake word, and by default it may be saving recordings of your voice, sharing data with advertisers, and letting family members (or anyone who picks up your phone) peek into your conversation history. You can fix all of this in about 10 minutes by turning off voice recording storage, disabling ad personalization, and setting a voice PIN for purchases. This guide walks you through every setting, one at a time.

Last updated: 2026-07-09

If a grandchild gave you an Amazon Echo or Google Nest speaker as a gift, you're in good company. Smart speakers are now in tens of millions of American homes, and adults over 55 are one of the fastest-growing groups of new owners — usually because someone in the family set one up for them to make calls, hear the news, or turn on the lights without getting up.

But almost nobody walks you through the privacy settings when they hand you the device. It just works out of the box, which means it's working with Amazon's or Google's default settings — not necessarily the settings that make sense for your privacy.

Here's what's actually happening inside that little speaker on your counter, and exactly what to change.

Is Alexa or Google Home Always Listening?

Yes and no, and the distinction matters.

Your smart speaker is always listening for one thing: its wake word ("Alexa," "Hey Google," or similar). That part happens on the device itself and typically isn't sent anywhere. The moment it hears that wake word, though, it starts recording and sends what follows to Amazon's or Google's servers to figure out what you're asking for.

The privacy questions people should actually be asking are:

Is my device recording more than it should (accidental wake-ups)?
Is that recording being saved permanently?
Who else can hear or read those recordings?
Is my data being used to target me with ads?

Every one of these has a setting you control. Let's go through them.

Setting 1: Turn Off Voice Recording Storage

By default, both Amazon and Google keep a running history of every recording your device makes — including the accidental ones where it wakes up because it misheard the TV or a conversation nearby. Those recordings sit in your account, sometimes for years, unless you turn this off.

On Alexa (Amazon Echo devices):

Open the Alexa app on your phone
Tap More (bottom right), then Settings
Tap Alexa Privacy
Tap Manage Your Alexa Data
Under "Choose how long to save your recordings," select Don't save recordings

On Google Home (Nest devices):

Open the Google Home app
Tap your profile picture, top right
Tap Assistant settings or go to myaccount.google.com
Tap Data & Privacy
Under "Web & App Activity," turn off saving of audio recordings, or set auto-delete to 3 months

Turning this off does not make the device work any worse. It simply stops storing a transcript of your household's daily life on a company server.

Setting 2: Delete Your Existing Voice History

Turning off future recording doesn't erase what's already been saved. Both companies let you wipe the slate clean.

In the Alexa app, under Alexa Privacy > Review Voice History, you can delete everything with one tap ("Delete all recordings for all history"). In the Google Home app or at myaccount.google.com under My Activity, you can filter to just "Assistant" activity and delete it in bulk.

Do this once now, then check back every few months if you'd rather not rely entirely on auto-delete settings.

Setting 3: Turn Off Ad Personalization

Both Amazon and Google can use information from your smart speaker interactions — what you ask about, what music you play, what you shop for — to build an advertising profile and show you targeted ads on other services you use.

To turn this off on Amazon: Go to the Alexa app, More > Settings > Alexa Privacy > Manage Ad Preferences, and opt out of interest-based ads.

To turn this off on Google: Go to myaccount.google.com, Data & Privacy > Ad personalization, and turn it off.

This won't change what the device can do for you. It only stops your data from being packaged into an advertising profile.

Setting 4: Require a PIN Before It Buys Anything

If your Echo is connected to your Amazon account, saying "Alexa, order paper towels" can genuinely place an order — using your saved payment method. A grandchild playing with the device, or a scammer who tricks the device through a phone speaker, could do the same thing.

Turn on voice purchasing confirmation by going to the Alexa app, More > Settings > Account Settings > Voice Purchasing, and either requiring a 4-digit confirmation code before every purchase or turning voice purchasing off entirely. Google Assistant has an equivalent setting under Assistant Settings > Payments, where you can require a PIN or your voice match before any purchase completes.

Setting 5: Review Who Else Can Access Your Device

If you share an Echo or Nest with family, or if your device is registered to a household account, other people may be able to see your voice history, calendar, contacts, and even drop in on your device's microphone unannounced.

On Alexa, check Communicate > Contacts and remove anyone you don't recognize, and review Drop In permissions under Settings > Device Settings > [Your Device] > Communications — Drop In lets an approved contact connect to your speaker's microphone and camera (if it has one) without you answering first. Many seniors don't realize this feature is on by default for contacts.

On Google Home, go to the Home app, tap the device, tap the gear icon, and review Linked accounts and Household members to see exactly who has access.

If you don't remember approving someone, remove them. You can always re-add a trusted family member later.

Setting 6: Mute the Microphone When You Want True Privacy

Every Echo and Nest speaker has a physical mute button, usually marked with a microphone icon, that cuts power to the microphone entirely — not just in software. This is the only setting that guarantees the device cannot hear anything, including its wake word.

Use it during private phone calls, when discussing financial or medical information out loud, or any time you simply want quiet. The device will show a light ring (usually red) when muted, confirming it's not listening.

Why This Matters More Than It Might Seem

None of this means your smart speaker is spying on you in some sinister way — these are mainstream products used by tens of millions of people. But the default settings favor convenience and data collection over privacy, and seniors are frequently the target of scams that exploit exactly this kind of always-on, always-connected device: fake "your Alexa account has been compromised" phone calls, smart-home-themed phishing emails, and family-impersonation scams that reference details a scammer could have pulled from a leaked voice transcript or shopping history.

Reducing what's stored and who has access shrinks the amount of personal information available if your account credentials or data are ever exposed in a breach.

What To Do If Your Data Has Already Been Exposed

If you've had these devices for years without ever touching the privacy settings, it's worth checking whether any of your accounts have shown up in a known data breach — a compromised Amazon or Google password is often the actual point of entry, not the speaker itself.

Aura monitors your identity, financial accounts, and email addresses for signs they've appeared in a data breach or are being sold on the dark web, and alerts you immediately if something changes. It also includes password manager tools that make it easy to set strong, unique passwords for accounts like Amazon and Google — the single best protection against someone breaking into the account tied to your smart speaker in the first place.

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A Simple Checklist You Can Do Right Now

[ ] Turn off voice recording storage (Alexa Privacy or Google Data & Privacy settings)
[ ] Delete your existing voice history
[ ] Turn off ad personalization
[ ] Require a PIN for voice purchases
[ ] Review who has Drop In or household access to your device
[ ] Know where the physical mute button is and use it

None of these take more than a minute or two, and once they're set, you won't have to think about them again.

The Bottom Line

Your smart speaker isn't something to be afraid of — it's a helpful device that millions of people, including plenty of seniors, use every day for reminders, music, calls, and controlling lights safely without extra trips across the house. The privacy settings above simply put you back in control of what it remembers, who can access it, and what it's allowed to do without asking first.

Take ten minutes this week to go through the checklist. It's the difference between a device that works for you and one that quietly works for someone else's advertising business.

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