Amazon Echo is reportedly an internet vampire that uses gigabytes of data per day despite ...

Dave W. Plummer, a former Microsoft developer, discovered his two unused Amazon Echo Show devices consumed over 4GB of data in just 24 hours, sparking concerns about smart speaker data usage.

The excessive data consumption occurred despite the devices being rarely used, raising questions about what activities cause such high bandwidth usage. Echo Show devices connect to the internet for various functions including software updates, displaying news and weather, syncing photos from cloud storage, and processing voice commands. Even when users don't actively engage with the devices, they continue performing background tasks that require internet connectivity.

• Plummer suspects the high usage stems from software bugs, large firmware updates, or cached video content rather than constant audio surveillance
• Amazon Sidewalk, a mesh network feature that shares bandwidth with neighboring devices, may contribute to unexpected data consumption
• False activation triggers from similar-sounding phrases can cause devices to record and upload audio clips for processing
• Users can monitor their device's data history or disconnect the devices entirely to prevent unwanted data usage and maintain privacy