Millennial dad thinks Alexa is safe, then his Gen Z daughter showed him the ‘hundreds’ of embarassing secret recordings

cA millennial father decided to completely ditch his Amazon Echo setup after his Gen Z daughter exposed a seriously embarrassing secret: the devices had been quietly storing hundreds of voice recordings without him knowing. This dad, who posts on Reddit as u/attachedhearttheory, found himself instantly humbled and ashamed when his 20-year-old showed him the evidence hidden deep within the Alexa app, per Daily Dot.

The whole ordeal started when the daughter arrived at his home for dinner and immediately insisted he unplug the smart speaker. She was worried about surveillance, telling him directly, “I don’t want Amazon to listen to my conversation.”

The dad, who is 41, initially reassured her that the device only listens after a wake word, but he did as she asked. Then, she instructed him to open the Alexa app, revealing a massive, searchable list of clips.

Yes, Amazon records many things, not just a wake word

He wrote in a post that he “had NO IDEA that Amazon was collecting everything I say.” The most painful part for him wasn’t the privacy breach itself, but the look his daughter gave him. He felt like he was back in the role of the confused grandparent who couldn’t figure out basic internet safety. He admitted he was “really ashamed of the fact that, at 41 years old, I just didn’t even think to look into it. Just had blind faith in a company that views me as a number.”

Now, before you frantically unplug your own smart speakers, let’s talk about what these recordings often are. While seeing “hundreds” of clips is definitely terrifying, some tech users argue that this isn’t necessarily proof of constant, malicious surveillance. This isn’t a man staring through the window, but it is still scary.

One user commented that to someone who isn’t tech-savvy, this list of snippets “looks like ‘it’s recording everything.’” In reality, these are often just seconds-long clips caused by background noise or the device misinterpreting speech, mistakenly thinking it heard the wake word; “it’s a list of times the machine was dumb.”

However, the truth about digital tracking is still pretty concerning, even if the accidental audio recording isn’t the main culprit. Experts suggest that the truly invasive data collection happens through data triangulation. This means tracking your location via GPS, gathering your health information tracked through services like MyChart, and monitoring your purchases linked to your debit card. The company sounds like a pain to work for, but it is more of a pain to deal with.

This widespread tracking is often considered much worse than the accidental audio snippets. As one person warned about the pervasive nature of smart devices, “The phone, watch, TVs and cars are listening.”