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As far as I can tell, most data from the Amazon Echo (e.g. recordings of my commands) are stored in the cloud, according to the Alexa FAQ. However, I couldn't find any authoritative information about what information is stored on the device itself.

A previous question I asked suggests that short snippets of sound are stored on the Echo itself so that the wake word can be detected, but apart from that, I'm not sure.

If I ever wanted to sell the Echo, it'd be useful to know what information is on the device, so that I can try to remove it.

What personal information is stored on the device itself (not in the cloud)? Amazon login credentials? Cached data from skills?

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  • I would be less worried about data stored on a device in your control and more about data stored in the cloud, and sent though the imperceptible cloud.
    – Mawg says reinstate Monica
    Feb 7 '17 at 9:46
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I have some skills published for Alexa, so here my understanding...

When you use Alexa, it needs to connect to the cloud, where you send whatever you say as a digital signal. How long Amazon will keep this recordings?, good question, not long I guess, they might keep the text?...

"As far as I can tell, most data from the Amazon Echo (e.g. recordings of my commands) are stored in the cloud, according to the Alexa FAQ. However, I couldn't find any authoritative information about what information is stored on the device itself."

Now the device itself is not powerfull enough to store much, may be the Echo or Echo dot, could have some memory but I will think is more to handle internal processes, not so much to record you?

If I ever wanted to sell the Echo, it'd be useful to know what information is on the device, so that I can try to remove it.

you can unlink the hardware from your amazon account, so the info might be kept by Amazon, but not on the echo

What personal information is stored on the device itself? Amazon login credentials? Cached data from skills?"

As commented before, the real data is on the cloud, linked to the Amazon account associated to that echo.

But good question, it could record some things? A teardown shows storage... 4GB Toshiba eMMC NAND flash So yes, it could store something?

Personal information stored?, maybe...

Now, to hack it on the hardware, retrieve what is in there. Your concern?... Might be more difficult?, there are easier ways to record that audio?.

For a hack in AWS, alexa, could happen also, but more difficult?. Your info for sure is collected not only by Amazon, but many others like mobile operators, advertisers, mail providers?...

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If I ever wanted to sell the Echo, it'd be useful to know what information is on the device, so that I can try to remove it.

I think one good option is to deregister the echo device from you Amazon account as this video guide shows.

Here are the steps:

  1. Go to the Alexa app.
  2. Click 'Settings'.
  3. Select the device that you want to deregister.
  4. Scroll to 'Device is registered to ...', and click 'Deregister'.
  5. Confirm that you want to deregister when the modal pops up.
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  • Thank you for the link! Posts that are only links to other sites are not considered complete answers on this site; the last thing we want on this site is to send people to another place to find an answer after they've been searching for a solution, so it's best if the important parts of the link are summarised in your post. I've edited the steps in to your answer, feel free to edit further if you want to add more content/change the formatting.
    – Aurora0001
    Jun 3 '17 at 9:09
  • @Aurora0001, thanks for completing the answer and for your guidance regarding forum rules. I will ensure that the answers are complete for next time.
    – sob
    Jun 3 '17 at 16:51
  • No problem. All your answers so far have been really good (I particularly liked this one), so be sure to continue participating where you can. You can also check How to Answer to see most of the important rules we have here, if you have time.
    – Aurora0001
    Jun 3 '17 at 17:04

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