Archives - Smart Home


Set up a PIN for voice purchases

If you have an Alexa device, you can set it up so that it will purchase items when you ask it to. However, this gives anyone in your home, including guests, the power to buy something with your credit card easily. It’s more secure to enable a PIN that you also have to say along […]

Mute your Google Nest device when not using it

Words that sound close enough to the device’s wake words could enable it to record your conversations. Similar to your Alexa device, it will only retain relevant information. However, to protect your privacy as much as possible, you could mute the device when you’re not expecting to use it. You can do this by pushing […]

Delete your Alexa voice recordings daily

Your Alexa device keeps recordings of some of the things you say to it. Only recordings that are considered relevant are retained, however, that could be more than you realize. If you don’t want a record of what you’ve said to your Alexa device, delete your voice recordings every night. Just say “Alexa, delete what […]

Change your Alexa wake word

If you have an Echo, or another Alexa device, it could be listening to your conversations if your wake word is something you use often. Amazon claims that only relevant conversations are stored, but if you want to limit the amount of conversations that fall in this category, you may need to be more cautious. […]

Delete sensitive stored recordings from your Alexa device

Unless you remove them, Alexa will store text and audio recordings indefinitely. While this is used to improve the performance of your Echo or other devices, if unauthorized parties gain access, they can use personal information to hijack additional accounts. From the Alexa app, open Settings. Then select “Account Settings” and “History.” Delete the desired […]

Protect against unauthorized recording or listening

When working from home, turn off digital assistants, such as Siri, Alexa and Cortana. In most cases, disabling virtual assistants and apps with recording function is as simple as navigating to settings and turning off or disabling the function.