Buying behavior in Germany has changed. Over 50 million Germans regularly buy online, tipically with Amazon. But what is the online giant doing with our data? In addition to regular shopping, Amazon also offers a range of other services, including Amazon Prime, Amazon Fresh and Amazon Echo. In each of these services, we can see data about us in a variety of forms, be it favorite music, eating habits or what movies and genres we like.

AMAZON'S PRIVACY POLICY IS AMERICAN AND LUXEMBOURG PRIVACY

Data protection should be a fundamental right in Germany. Amazon, however, is located in the United States and Europe in Luxembourg and has several subsidiaries, in different countries, with different laws and regulations. Here it is for the German government to find out what data is used for what purpose by Amazon and whether unlawfully data collected and stored.

WRITTEN AND SPOKEN INFORMATION

For Amazon Prime and Amazon Fresh, data and search queries are entered in writing. The Amazon Echo series consists of voice assistants such as Amazon Echo Dot, Amazon Echo Plus or Amazon Echo Show, which connect to the Internet, play music, answer questions or control the light, all with voice commands. Here privacy advocates see the problem: When does Alexa listen and when not?

DOES ALEXA HAVE TO BE APPROACHED?

To activate an Amazon Echo product, the activation word "Alexa" must be set beforehand so that the subsequent voice command can be executed. The voice commands or requests are then transmitted to the Amazon server and a response is generated or action is triggered, which is either output or performed again by computer voice. Accordingly, the theory is that even only speech is recorded when previously "Alexa" was addressed. But, is this really the truth?

THE VOICE RECORDINGS BELONG TO AMAZON

The first studies and studies show that the microphone in the Amazon Echo products are permanently switched on. However, data transfer to the shopping giants takes place only when the keyword Alexa was mentioned. The transmitted language files are stored permanently on Amazon and Amazon reserves the right to further evaluate them. In addition, it is possible that the Amazon Echo voice recording will be activated if similar words fall. Amazon says that it can happen that Amazon Echo is inadvertently activated. However, even then clearly recognizable by the blue ring, that an activation has occurred!