How to Stop the Amazon Echo from Buying Stuff
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After the close of last year’s holiday shopping season, sales of dollhouses mysteriously surged on Amazon.com. The reason? After a local news report about a six-year old who ordered a dollhouse using her parents’ Amazon Echo, the anchorman said “”I love that little girl saying ‘Alexa ordered me a dollhouse.’” And mistakenly, Echo speakers that heard the news started making orders themselves.
Enabled on every Amazon Alexa app by default, voice purchasing mines your previous Amazon purchases and other products available through the Amazon Prime subscription shopping service to let you easily order items without having to browse the company’s website. But Alexa, the Amazon Echo’s voice assistant, doesn’t discriminate between who’s barking commands her way — whether it’s you, a kid, a television show, or even a mischievous friend. So the best way to ensure something like this doesn’t happen to you is to disable or restrict the feature.
Related: The ultimate guide to the Amazon Echo