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Amazon has confirmed to Tom’s Hardware that a bug in select Echo Show devices has been causing the device to use up data, and that the company has since resolved the issue. “…there was a bug impacting widgets caching large images on select Echo Show devices,” Amazon spokesperson Lauren Raemhild said in an email. However, she also mentioned that it has since been fixed, so users no longer have to worry about their Amazon smart home gear using up a ton of data. It follows former Microsoft engineer Dave W. Plummer sharing on X last week that his Amazon Echo Show device, which he claims he never uses, burned through more than 4 GB of data in less than a day.
While plenty of commenters suggested to Plummer that his Echo device was spying on him, causing the excessive data usage, he disagreed and postulated a couple of other reasons, which Amazon has now confirmed.
“Odds are it’s (a) a bug, or (b) they both took big updates that day, or (c) it’s cached video content,” Plummer said on his X profile. “The Echo Show does video, so for all I know, it’s downloading trailers of movies. But it ain’t spying, I’d put money on that.”
Yes, it’s true that smart devices are always listening for the trigger command. In fact, some smart speakers (like Google Nest) would activate when called, even when they’re not online, which shows that they’re always waiting for your command. However, these devices are not supposed to record and send anything unless you specifically give a command that requires processing on the manufacturer’s servers.
Amazon’s statement confirms that the massive amount of data used by Plummer’s Echo Show devices was a bug caused by an app downloading unnecessarily large photos. Although these smart displays download images for use as screensavers or backgrounds, they don’t need high-resolution photographs. Even the largest 15-inch Amazon Echo Show only has a 1080p resolution, meaning the file size of the downloaded images does not need to exceed 4 MB (and can even be less than 1 MB for web-optimized JPGs).
But if you really don’t want to risk your privacy but still want to enjoy the convenience of a smart speaker or display, most of these devices often come with a physical mute switch. That way, it will stop their always-listening function, ensuring that they won’t be triggered, even accidentally.
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