Headphones and earbuds that track your listening, location, and head movements.
11 devices analyzed. Set your privacy comfort level to filter.
What we found
Amazon Echo Pop Kids: FAlexa for children. Records everything your kid says and builds a voice profile of a minor.
Amazon's Children's Privacy Disclosure now states parents can 'review and delete voice recordings at any time' and that Amazon Kids voice recordings are retained to 'improve the child's experience and improve Alexa and Amazon Kids services.' The FTC settlement proved Amazon kept children's recordings even after parents requested deletion, and used children's speech patterns to train Alexa's algorithm. Despite paying $25M, the current privacy policy still authorises using children's voice data to 'improve services' — the same justification the FTC found violated COPPA.
Alexa (Echo Platform): FParents told Alexa to delete their kids' recordings.
In May 2023, the FTC fined Amazon $25 million for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The FTC found that when parents used Alexa's deletion tool, Amazon deleted the voice recordings but kept the transcripts and derivative data -- the actual valuable data for training AI models. Amazon retained children's geolocation data indefinitely regardless of deletion requests. The FTC complaint stated: "Amazon's hollow promises are not good enough." Combined with a $5.8 million Ring settlement announced the same week, Amazon paid $30.8 million total. Amazon was ordered to delete ALL improperly retained children's data AND the algorithms trained on that data -- a rare requirement that acknowledged the data's value extended beyond storage into AI model weights.
Google Nest Mini: DGoogle's cheapest spy. Always-on microphone for $50. Recorded 0.2% of conversations for human review.
Google Assistant Privacy Class Action lawsuit documents that Google Assistant on Nest/Home devices activates and records conversations without the wake word being spoken. A 2020 Security Magazine report confirmed Google admitted a software update caused Home speakers to record at all times. Separately, researcher Matt Kunze demonstrated (2021, $107,500 bounty) that an attacker could remotely access the Nest Mini microphone feed by installing a backdoor account via the Google Home app.
Amazon Echo Dot: DAlways listening. 7 microphones recording your living room. Alexa voice data reviewed by humans worldwide.
FTC settlement (2023-05-31): Amazon retained children's voice recordings indefinitely even after parents explicitly requested deletion. Amazon kept text transcripts after deleting audio without informing users. 30,000 Amazon employees had access to Alexa voice recordings without business justification. FTC imposed $25 million penalty for COPPA violations.