Amazon last week confirmed that it keeps transcripts of interactions with Alexa, even after users have deleted the voice recordings.

Based on reports that Amazon retains text records of what users ask Alexa, Sen. Chris Coons in May sent a letter to CEO Jeff Bezos, demanding answers.

The Democrat from Delaware asked Amazon to provide answers on how long it stores transcripts, whether users can delete them, why it collects them and how they are used, and whether the company anonymizes customer identity.

“While I am encouraged that Amazon allows users to delete audio recordings linked to their accounts,” Coons, a member of the judiciary committee, wrote in his letter, “I am very concerned by reports that suggest that text transcriptions of these audio records are preserved indefinitely on Amazon’s servers, and users are not given the option to delete these text transcripts.”

In response, Amazon Vice President of Public Policy Brian Huseman revealed that the tech titan keeps transcripts and voice recordings indefinitely, removing them only when “the customer chooses to delete them.”

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