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Echo Show ads and Alexa privacy settings

Last checked: 14 Oct 2026

Amazon says you can't turn off the Sponsored ads on an Echo Show, but you can switch off other content on the home screen. Alexa has separate settings for interest-based ads and for how long your voice recordings are kept. The steps are the same in the UK and US unless we say otherwise.

Can you turn off ads on an Echo Show?

No, not the Sponsored ones. Amazon says ads are marked "Sponsored" at the bottom of the screen, and "You can't turn off these ads". You can swipe from right to left to skip one, or select the information in the bottom-right corner to hide that ad for 30 days.

Other suggestions on the home screen aren't marked Sponsored. Amazon gives Amazon Recommendations, Your Frequent Orders and Explore Local Places as examples, and you can switch these off (next section).

Turn off other home-screen content

Say "Go to Settings", or open Settings on the screen, then:

Settings → Display & Appearance → Home Content Categories

Turn each category on or off. Amazon lists these steps for the Echo Show 1st and 2nd generation, 5, 8, 10, 11 (2025), 15 and 21. With Alexa+, open Settings from the menu icon; with the original Alexa, swipe down from the top of the screen.

Amazon says menus on the Echo Show 5 and Echo Hub "may vary". Its UK Echo Show 5 page gives Settings → Home & Clock → Home Content (source). Amazon doesn't publish a list of the category names.

Photo Frame shows only your photos for up to three hours, but Amazon doesn't say whether Sponsored ads still appear while it's on.

Interest-based ads on Alexa

This decides whether Amazon's ads on Alexa (including on an Echo Show screen) are based on your interests. You'll still see or hear ads either way.

Alexa app → More → Alexa Privacy → Manage Your Alexa Data

On an Echo Show, the same page is under Settings → Alexa Privacy (in the US, Settings → Privacy & Permissions → Alexa Privacy). Amazon says this setting doesn't apply to ads in other Amazon services such as Fire TV or Amazon Music, so those have their own settings: see Amazon ad settings and the Fire TV settings guide.

Alexa skills: in Alexa Privacy, Manage Skill Permissions and Ad Preferences asks the companies that make Alexa skills (add-on apps) not to use your Alexa advertising ID (an ID number used for ads) to choose ads for you. You can also reset that ID there. Amazon says it's up to those companies to respect this.

Voice recordings: how long they're kept, and deleting them

Amazon saves your voice recordings by default. To choose how long they're kept:

Alexa app → More → Alexa Privacy → Manage Your Alexa Data → Choose how long to save recordings

The options are to save recordings until you delete them, for 18 months, for 3 months, or not to save them. With "Don't save recordings", Amazon says recordings are deleted after Alexa processes your request; text transcripts are kept for 30 days, and the change can take up to 36 hours to apply.

To review or delete past recordings, go to Alexa Privacy in the Alexa app and open your voice history. Amazon's pages call it "Review Voice History", "Review Alexa History" or "Review Voice and Text History", depending on the page. You can filter by date, device or profile.

Delete by voice: first turn on deletion by voice in Manage Your Alexa Data, then say "Alexa, delete what I just said" or "Alexa, delete everything I said today". Amazon says this doesn't work with Alexa+, or on Amazon Kids devices.

Human review: in Manage Your Alexa Data, under Help Improve Alexa, turn off Use voice recordings and Use messages to improve transcriptions. Amazon says people review "an extremely small sample" of requests.

Amazon's FAQ now says requests are sent to its cloud to be processed. We found no current Amazon page offering on-device processing instead, so "Don't save recordings" is the shortest retention Amazon documents.

Is Alexa always listening?

Amazon says an Echo device listens on the device for its wake word ("keyword spotting"), and that no audio is stored or sent to the cloud until it detects the wake word or you press a button to start Alexa. The recording then includes a fraction of a second from before the wake word. A light shows when Alexa is listening: a blue ring, or a blue bar on an Echo Show.

For TVs with microphones, see what a far-field TV microphone does.

Sources

This page describes your options and how organisations say they handle requests. It isn't legal advice. See About & sourcing to report a correction.