Alexa Privacy and Settings: 9 Essential Changes for a Better Experience

If you’re like me, you love your Echo speakers and smart displays for managing daily tasks and entertainment. But there are certain Alexa features that can be downright annoying—or even concerning from a privacy standpoint. With Alexa Plus rolling out with advanced AI capabilities, it’s more important than ever to customize your settings for a smoother, less intrusive experience.

Here are the nine most important Alexa settings you should change right now:

1. Turn Off Hunches and “Things to Try” Notifications

Alexa’s Hunches feature tries to be helpful by suggesting actions for your connected devices—like locking doors at night or offering new timer tricks. But these suggestions can quickly become disruptive interruptions.

To disable:

• Open the Alexa app and tap the More/Menu icon (three horizontal lines)
• Go to Settings > Hunts > tap the gear icon in the upper right > Notifications
• Toggle off Hunches entirely

Similarly, Alexa’s “Things to Try” feature chimes in with suggestions after conversations. Disable it by going to Settings > Things to Try and turning it off.

Pro tip: Voice commands like “Alexa, disable Hunches” sometimes work, but the manual method is more reliable if you keep hearing unwanted suggestions.

2. Control Voice Recording Storage

Amazon automatically opts you into using your voice recordings for research purposes. While you can’t completely stop cloud processing anymore (a requirement for Alexa Plus), you can limit data retention.

To adjust:

• In the Alexa app, tap More > Alexa Privacy > Manage Your Alexa Data
• Select Voice Recordings and Transcripts
• Choose Don’t Retain to have recordings discarded immediately after processing

This section also lets you manage interest-based ads if you’d prefer to list your interests rather than allow targeted advertising.

3. Manage Skill Permissions

Alexa Skills (essentially apps) can access various types of your data. It’s worth periodically reviewing which skills have access to your address, contacts, or payment information.

To review:

• Tap More > Alexa Privacy > Manage Skill Permissions and Ad Preferences
• Select the data type you want to review
• Toggle individual skills on or off

If you use Alexa Plus, tap Manage Alexa+ Services at the top to control more advanced permissions for AI-powered skills.

4. Disable Voice Purchasing

Voice purchasing can be convenient, but it’s also a potential security risk—especially if you have kids who might place unauthorized orders.

To control:

• Go to More > Settings > Account Settings > Voice Purchasing
• Options include turning it off entirely, restricting it for kids, or requiring a confirmation code

5. Stop Echo from Chiming When You Walk By

Many Echo devices make a sound when someone passes by, which can be annoying if your device is in a high-traffic area.

To disable:

• Tap More > Settings > Notifications > Notification Preferences
• Toggle off Notify When Nearby

6. Turn Off Drop In and Announcements

Alexa’s Drop In feature allows approved contacts to connect to your device without you answering—they just start talking through your speaker. While useful for some, it can be invasive.

To disable:

• Go to More > Settings > Device Settings
• Select your Echo device > tap the gear icon > Communications
• Turn off Drop In and adjust announcement settings as desired

7. Disable Amazon Sidewalk

Amazon Sidewalk creates a shared network using your Echo and Ring devices to extend connectivity to other nearby devices. While it can improve device performance, many users have privacy and bandwidth concerns.

To turn off:

• Tap More > Settings > Account Settings > Amazon Sidewalk
• Toggle the feature off

8. Enable Brief Mode for Less Chatter

By default, Alexa often repeats your commands back to you, sometimes at high volume. Brief Mode makes interactions more efficient.

To enable:

• Open the Alexa app and go to More > Settings > Voice Responses
• Turn on Brief Mode to limit verbal responses
• Consider Whisper Mode for quiet responses or Adaptive Volume to automatically adjust based on background noise

Note: Alexa Plus tends to be more talkative and may override some of these settings.

9. Review Privacy Settings Regularly

With the rollout of Alexa Plus and its AI capabilities, Amazon has made changes to how voice data is processed. While human review of recordings has decreased, cloud processing is now mandatory for Alexa Plus devices.

Make it a habit to periodically review all privacy settings, especially after major updates or when adding new skills and devices to your ecosystem.

Tags: Alexa privacy settings, Echo customization, smart home security, voice assistant tips, Amazon Sidewalk, Alexa Plus, Brief Mode, voice purchasing, Hunches feature, Alexa skills permissions

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