Privacy organizations sue Amazon over children’s version Echo speaker

Several American privacy organizations have sued Amazon over the Echo Dot Kids, a children’s version of its speaker with digital assistant Alexa. According to the organizations, the data processing is not done according to US laws. Amazon denies.

Echo Dot Kids

For example, the Echo Dot Kids does ask for credit card verification, but that does not have to be the credit card of a parent or guardian of the child, the organizations claim in the complaint. As a result, it remains unclear whether a parent has given permission for the use of the speaker. The indictment comes from more than ten organizations, including child protection organizations and the Center for Digital Democracy.

In addition, when using skills, ‘apps’ on the Echo speakers, Amazon refers to the privacy policies of those companies. However, they only have that in 15 percent of the cases. In addition, Amazon stores data from the children, especially recordings of their voices, indefinitely. That violates US child protection laws.

Amazon denies in a statement to The New York Times, among others, that the Echo speakers violate laws with data collection. The company refers to a site with more information about the processing of data from Echo speakers.