Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition violated children's privacy law, say advocacy groups

Privacy concerns surrounding Amazon's Echo line of smart speakers are nothing new, but it's a different ballgame when children are involved.

Several advocacy groups collectively lodged a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday, accusing Amazon of farming personal data from children using the Echo Dot Kids Edition released last year. Amazon denied the accusations, claiming its practices were fully compliant with federal laws, according to the New York Times.

Among the groups who filed the complaint were Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and Parents Across America. Essentially, they claimed Amazon's kid-centric smart speaker could store private information that kids shared with it in a way that was difficult for parents to purge from its cloud storage.

Other tech giants like Apple have also jumped on the smart speaker train. Credit: James D. Morgan/Getty Images

For example, researchers found that the Echo Dot Kids Edition would retain the fake Social Security numbers, phone numbers, and other personal information they gave it. The Alexa mobile app stores transcripts of these conversations, but even after asking Alexa to delete the information, the virtual assistant could still recite it back to the researchers.

It took a call to Amazon customer service to have the information fully deleted from the cloud.

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The advocacy groups said this was a violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA. That federal law has been in place for two decades and exists to protect the personal information of children under 13 who use online services.

Despite their popularity, parents have voiced concerns about smart speakers in recent years. A study published by USA Todayearlier this year found that 58 percent of parents whose kids used smart speakers were worried about hackers eavesdropping on their conversations. Just last month, it came to light that Amazon employees could potentially track the locations of Alexa users while transcribing their exchanges with the virtual assistant.

It remains to be seen if Amazon will actually get in trouble for this, but the safety of children could be the thing that gets the federal government's attention.

Update, May, 10, 2019, 1:14 p.m. ET:

Amazon responded to the complaint with a statement on Friday. In the blog post, Amazon emphasized that its kid-focused Alexa programs require parental consent and do not store personal information. The company also stated that voice recordings can be deleted from the Alexa app and said it complies with COPPA.

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