Echo users cannot feel safe after reading about the information that Amazon employees have access to

Some team members may discover an Alexa user's geographic coordinates. With this information, the data can be entered into a third-party mapping application to detect the home address of that user. Amazon previously said that these employees and consultants could not obtain information that would allow them to know the names and addresses of each Alexa user whose records they reviewed.

Despite Amazon's statement to the contrary, two anonymous Amazon employees told Bloomberg that until recently, the vast majority of Alexa Data Service team members had access to the tools needed to obtain the customer's addresses. In addition, using the first time an Echo user gives Alexa a task, the Amazon used the Internet address to get its approximate location. Now the company uses a customer's shipping address as the default location for an Echo unit.

Bloomberg looked like an Alexa Data Services team member, listening to the recording of an Echo user commands to Alexa. He pasted the length and width of the user into Google Maps. Suddenly, the employee's screen showed a picture of the Echo user's home along with his address.

Some questions about Amazon really need a need for this data. Lindsey Barrett, a lawyer and teacher at Georgetown Law's Communications and Technology Clinic, says that the ability of any Amazon employee to access location data is a red flag. She noted that "Whenever anyone collects where you are, it means it can go to someone else who can find you when you don't want to be found."