The reason your Amazon Alexa devices are always listening

Of course, the most straightforward way to eliminate any eavesdropping Alexa concerns is to simply mute your device's microphone. For most Alexa devices made by Amazon (the Echo lineup), the button to do so is located on the top of the device and looks like a microphone with a slash through it. Once you press it, you'll know the microphone is muted by the red light displayed on the Echo device. It's a bit antithetical to how the device is designed to be used, but if you don't mind manually turning the microphone on and off each time you want to ask Alexa something, it's an easy fix for privacy concerns. If you still want to be able to call out to Alexa without fiddling with a button each time, you can adjust your recording settings for extra data protection.