Amazon is raising eyebrows and privacy concerns once again. Starting March 28, if you’re an Amazon Echo user, you can kiss your local voice processing goodbye. The tech giant has officially announced that all your voice recordings will now be swept off to its cloud instead of staying local, as it scrubs the ‘Do Not Send Voice Recordings’ feature from the playbook.

Most of us rely on our Echos to provide us with everything from the latest Taylor Swift gossip to that perfect avocado toast recipe, but at what cost? In an email floated around by Amazon, the company explained that this privacy-reducing decision is all about beefing up Alexa’s capabilities with new generative AI features that require the extra muscle of Amazon’s cloud. Sounds great, except suddenly your personal conversations are now data points for Amazon’s ever-expanding digital empire.

Amazon has had its fair share of privacy issues in the past. Just last year, they had to fork over $25 million to settle with the Federal Trade Commission over flouting kids’ privacy laws. We all know every tech company has been grilled about data handling, will we ever trust them? Probably not, but here we are.

With the upcoming release of Alexa+, it’s hard not to think if this move is simply a shiny new façade for what is increasingly becoming a house of cards. Consumers and lawmakers alike are already waving red flags about the implications of having every little word you say potentially recorded and stored forever in the cloud.

Perhaps it’s time to rethink how secure we feel letting Amazon listen to our brunch banter and late-night rants. If you’ve been planning on hosting a little get-together and want to chat about something private, might be wise to consider turning off your Echo or placing it far out of earshot. After all, is it really worth the price of convenience when your voice is just another product for sale in the data marketplace? Ultimately, the future with Alexa+ sounds exciting, but let’s protect our everyday conversations from becoming tomorrow’s trending data set. Get ready to talk with a little more caution!