Smart home privacy: Alexa recordings, Ring videos and vacuum maps

Your robot vacuum knows the floor plan of your home. Your video doorbell knows who stood on the porch and when, and the speaker on the kitchen counter keeps a list of everything you ever asked it. Smart home privacy sounds like one topic, but it covers three different kinds of data: maps and camera images, footage of your front door, and voice recordings. Each device collects something else, and each has its own switches.

No need to rip anything off the walls. Most of the data sits in the manufacturer’s cloud, where you can see it, shorten how long it stays, or delete it. You just have to know where.

Smart home privacy and robot vacuums: map, camera, microphone

Modern robot vacuums measure your rooms with a laser or a camera, save a map, and show it in the app. Pricier models carry a front camera for cords and socks, some add a remote view, a few have a microphone.

That means a device with sensors at ankle height rolls through your bathroom and bedroom while talking to a server. Researcher Dennis Giese told MIT Technology Review that these machines have powerful hardware and sensors and drive around your home in ways you have no real way to control.

The photos from Venezuela

In the fall of 2020, gig workers in Venezuela posted images to closed online groups where they talked about their jobs. The pictures showed homes from a low angle. In one, a young woman in a lavender T-shirt sat on the toilet. In another, a boy of about eight or nine lay on his stomach in a hallway, looking at the lens with apparent amusement.

The images came from development versions of iRobot’s Roomba J7. The company had sent them to Scale AI, a startup that has workers label data for training AI. MIT Technology Review obtained 15 screenshots and published its story in December 2022. iRobot had shared more than two million images with Scale AI, according to the report.

iRobot said they came from special test robots that were never sold to consumers. The testers had signed agreements, and the units carried a bright green sticker reading “video recording in progress,” the company said. So the case proves nothing about a Roomba from the store. It does show how far an image can travel once it reaches the cloud: from a bathroom floor to Massachusetts, on to San Francisco, and from there to strangers on another continent.

The vacuum that yelled slurs

In May 2024, the robot vacuum of Daniel Swenson, a lawyer in Minnesota, started making noises like a broken-up radio. In the Ecovacs app, he could see that someone was using the live camera and remote control. He reset his password and rebooted the robot. Then a voice yelled racist slurs through the speaker, right in front of his 13-year-old son. The machine was an Ecovacs Deebot X2.

Australia’s ABC found more owners in the US hit within a few days. Ecovacs told Swenson his account had most likely been taken over by credential stuffing, meaning a username and password stolen from another service.

That alone should not have been enough, ABC noted, because the camera and remote control sat behind an extra PIN. Giese and his fellow researcher Braelynn Luedtke had shown back in December 2023 that the PIN was only checked inside the app, so it could be bypassed. Ecovacs says the flaw was fixed; Giese told ABC the fix was not sufficient.

In August 2024, at the Def Con hacking conference, the pair showed how a Bluetooth flaw let them take over several Ecovacs models from about 450 feet away. On the vacuums, Giese said, Bluetooth is only on for 20 minutes after they switch on, which makes them harder to hack. Ecovacs told TechCrunch it would not fix the flaws and that users did not need to worry excessively.

What you can change on your robot vacuum

Menus differ between brands and models, so we describe the settings rather than name them.

If your model has a camera, the app usually has settings for remote viewing or video monitoring and for object recognition. Turn off whatever you do not use. Saved maps can be deleted in the map management section, and a built-in microphone can usually be switched off.

The account matters more than any toggle. The Ecovacs incidents started with stolen logins, and that part is on you: a password used only for this app, plus two-factor sign-in if the brand offers it. Install firmware and app updates when they arrive.

Video doorbells: who sees who rang

A video doorbell films your front door. Ring, which Amazon owns, shows what gets stored. Other brands work similarly. Their menus do not.

Ring’s help center says that without a subscription, nothing is recorded; you can only watch live. With a subscription, Ring stores every motion event, doorbell press and live view in the cloud, by default for 30 or 60 days depending on the device, and for up to 180 days if you choose. Ring says it is rolling out a scheme in which it keeps the keys to your videos for only 24 hours, after which only you hold them. It is meant to become the default once every customer has it. On compatible devices you can turn on end-to-end encryption, which keeps Ring out entirely but disables features such as shared users.

Promises are not the whole story, though. In 2023 the Federal Trade Commission charged that Ring had let employees and contractors access private videos and had failed to stop attackers who took over about 55,000 US accounts. Ring agreed to pay $5.8 million. We tell that story in our piece on public webcams and how private cameras end up online.

Check storage time, shared links and who has access

Almost everything important lives in the Ring app’s Control Center. Tap the menu (☰), then Control Center. Under Video and Snapshot Storage > Video and Snapshot Storage Time, select Edit next to each device and pick how long videos are kept. In the US the default is 30 days for 4K devices and 60 days for 1080p and 2K devices; the maximum is 180. Ring says a shorter period only applies to recordings made after the change. Older clips you delete from History: tap the pencil icon in the top right, pick events or choose Delete All, then tap Delete twice.

One detail surprises people. Sharing a video by link creates a copy. Delete the original, and the shared link keeps working. You have to unshare separately, in the same menu, with the pencil icon and Unshare.

While you are in Control Center, look at Authorized Client Devices and Shared Users: every device allowed into your account and everyone who can watch your footage. An old tablet or a former roommate has no business there.

Police and Community Requests

In 2025 Ring launched Community Requests in the US. A verified local police or fire department can ask people in a mapped area, via the Neighbors feed, to share footage from a set time window. Consumer Reports noted that it closely resembles Request for Assistance, a program Ring shut down in 2024.

Participation is voluntary. If you do share, Ring says your home address and the email on your account go to the investigator along with the clips. Once shared, footage cannot be retracted or deleted. Ring also told Consumer Reports that federal agencies such as ICE are not eligible. If you would rather not get these emails at all, Ring’s help page lists the path: menu (☰), Control Center, Public Safety, then opt out of Community Requests email notifications.

The app is not the only route. Ring has said it receives thousands of law enforcement requests a year and complies when legally required, according to the BBC. The shorter your storage time, the less there is to hand over.

Alexa recordings: what Amazon keeps

A smart speaker waits for its wake word. What follows goes to the cloud. Whether these devices listen the rest of the time is a separate question, which we took apart in Is my phone listening to me?. This section is about what is left after a request.

With Alexa, quite a lot. Amazon’s US help page says all voice recordings and transcripts are saved by default. On top of that comes a history of your smart home devices, such as when a light was switched on.

Some Echo models used to have a setting called “Do Not Send Voice Recordings.” Amazon ended it on March 28, 2025, citing its generative AI features, TechCrunch reported.

Review and delete your recordings

In the Alexa app, go to Settings > Alexa Privacy > Review Alexa History; some app versions start from More > Alexa Privacy instead. On an Echo Show, the path on the device is Settings > Privacy & Permissions > Alexa Privacy. In a browser, type amazon.com/alexaprivacysettings. You can filter by date, device and profile, listen to recordings, read transcripts and delete them.

Deleting has not always meant deleted. In 2023 the FTC and the Department of Justice charged that Amazon kept children’s voice recordings indefinitely and that, even when parents asked for deletion, transcripts stayed in some databases. Amazon agreed to a $25 million civil penalty. So after deleting, take a second look.

To stop the history from refilling, go to More > Alexa Privacy > Manage Your Alexa Data and choose how long to save recordings. There are four options: keep them until you delete them, 18 months, 3 months, or Don’t save recordings. Per Amazon, the last one also deletes everything saved so far. The first switch can take up to 36 hours to apply, and transcripts stay visible until a chat has been inactive for 30 days.

Smart home device history has its own retention choice in the same menu, again 3 or 18 months. Echo devices also have a microphone off button, which Amazon describes as disconnecting the microphones. For private conversations, that is the simplest move.

What each device keeps

What your TV shares about your viewing habits is covered in our piece on automatic content recognition.

Selling or giving a device away

Selling a robot vacuum or leaving a doorbell behind when you move takes two steps, in order: first remove the device from your account in the app, then factory reset it. With Ecovacs, Giese and Luedtke found in 2024 that stored data and an authentication token stayed on the company’s servers even after an account was deleted. In the worst case, that could let a previous owner reach a robot that now sits in someone else’s home.

With Ring, the footage lives in the cloud. Careful: per Ring, removing a device from your account also deletes its videos, so download what you want to keep first. If you want the whole account gone, Control Center has Manage Your Data, where you can request a copy or have everything deleted, account and videos included. With Alexa, unplugging the Echo does nothing for your history. The recordings belong to your Amazon account, not to the speaker.

Why a reset does not automatically mean everything is gone is explained in how to permanently delete data.

Smart home privacy: the short version

A smart home is no spy as long as you know what it writes down. On the robot vacuum, that means the map and the camera: turn off what you do not use, delete the map, and protect the account with its own password and two-factor sign-in, since that is how the known break-ins happened. On the doorbell, storage time decides how much footage exists at all. Clear old clips from History, unshare links separately, and check client devices and shared users to see who else can watch. If police requests bother you, opt out of the emails and remember that sharing is permanent.

With Alexa, you decide whether recordings stay, last three months or are not kept at all, and you clear the old history once by hand and check it again afterwards. For private conversations there is the microphone button. Before any device leaves your home, take it out of your account first and reset it second; to get rid of a whole Ring account, use Manage Your Data.

All of it takes one evening. And if you stay in a vacation rental, take ten minutes to look for hidden cameras. What your router alone gives away about where you live is covered in our piece on the BSSID.

Frequently asked questions

Can a robot vacuum with a camera take pictures of me?

It can. Models with a front camera use it to spot cords, socks and pet mess, and some offer a remote view through the app. Whether images leave the device depends on the brand and your settings. One widely reported case involved iRobot test units in 2020, whose images went to a labeling contractor and ended up in private social media groups. iRobot said those were development robots, not retail models.

How long does Ring keep my videos?

According to Ring, nothing is recorded without a subscription; you only get the live view. With a subscription, events are stored in the cloud, 30 or 60 days by default depending on the device, up to 180 days. You can change that in Control Center, but the change only applies to new recordings. Older clips have to be deleted from History, one by one or all at once.

Can police get my Ring videos?

Through the app, only if you choose to share. With Community Requests, local agencies can ask Ring users in an area for footage from a time window, and responding is voluntary. If you share, Ring says your address and email go along with the clips, and you cannot take them back. Separately, police can still go to Ring directly with legal process.

Does Alexa keep everything I say?

Alexa keeps what you say after the wake word, and Amazon says those recordings are saved by default until you change it. In the Alexa app under Alexa Privacy you can listen to them, delete them, and choose to keep them for 3 or 18 months or not at all. Whether the speaker listens without the wake word is a separate question that we cover in its own article.

What should I do before selling a robot vacuum?

Remove it from your account in the manufacturer app first, then factory reset it. The order is a precaution: that way neither the device stays tied to your account nor your account to the device. How stubborn data can be was shown by researchers in 2024: Ecovacs kept stored data and an access token on its servers even after the user deleted the account.