but tonight it's the focus of new privacy concerns here's jolene kent >> reporter: tonight amazon admitting it may be keeping track of what you say to alexa in a letter to congress the online shopping giant revealing that even if you delete your voice recording, amazon holds on other records of alexa interactions including records of actions alexa took in response to the customer's request. that means amazon could store data about when you've stored uber or food delivery to your home last year in an exclusive interview, we pressed the head of alexa tony reed on privacy. >> can customers trust alexa >> absolutely. part of that is on us from an education perspective so that customers understand it's a new technology and for us to really educate customers and to be able to answer their questions about what is happening. >> reporter: amazon says storing what you ask alexa to do trains the artificial intelligence to better serve you in the future >> it's important to recognize that if you're going to use one of these devices for convenience sake that you're giving up a certain amount of privacy.

embasically it rds people that you have to be vigilant. >> jolene kent joins us now.ou. >> good to see you. if you want the money or protection what do you do right now? >> go to nbc.com and direct you to the page where you can enter your personal information and you can apply for the payouts and you've got to do it before mid-january 2020. >> if, you don't do anything what happens? >> this is interesting. you waive your tegal rig take any action against equifax in the future. >> it could be less tn $125. itefinitely could be and may very well be. >> good to see you.s >> tha so much. >>> new worries for active military members as the trump administration considers a big policy change that couldth put r families at risk. >>> we'll meet a woman with a >>> we'll meet a woman with a giant heart helpinge jardiancks: while managing your type 2 diabetes- why think about your heart? because with my type 2 diabetes, i'm more likely to have a fatal heart attack or stroke. lower a1c helps, but type 2 diabete of a fatal cardiovascular event. becausthtype 2 diabetes is mor a1c. wo

jolene kent explains >> reporter: tonight apple is defending siri and its popular voice assistant on iphone, ipad, and apple watch faces new criticism. an anonymous whistle blower told "the guardian" newspaper that human contractors can sometimes listen to what siri hears. among the chatter, confidential medical conversations, drug according to the whistle blower. nbc news has not confirmed the story, but apple did not deny the allegation, telling us it uses the recordings to make siri work better, adding only a very small random subset, less than 1% of daily siri utterances, are used to improve siri and dictation. but with 15 billion siri commands made every month, ten of millions could be listened to apple responded saying siri recordings are not attached to your apple user name or other identifying information, adding that all reviewers are under the obligation to adhere to apple's strict confidentiality requirement. apple frequently touts that it prioritizes privacy. >> privacy to us is a human right. >> these technologies are really reliant on human review and continual sort of

nbc's jolene kent now with the details on the pay out and how victims can get in on it >> reporter: tonight after 150 million americans may get relief from equifax, this after one of the largest data breaches ever that compromised names, addresses, birth dates, social security numbers, and driver's license information. >> they're going to pay consumers for their loss and they're going to pay to make sure something like this doesn't happen again >> reporter: equifax will pay $575 million to consumers including $300 million for free credit monitoring services alison thompson received a letter saying her data may have been compromised and says she still won't be able to trust the company. >> you pay them to protect you you pay them to get your credit report and then they make money by selling your information. i just think it's kind of disgusting >> reporter: the ceo of equifax trying to restore that trust today. >> today's announcement put the consumer fund in place that will give consumers peace of mind that their identity is going to be watched with the credit monitoring that will be offere

the feds today gave approval for a mega merger, two of the biggest cell phone companies combining jolene kent takes a look at what that could mean for you. >> reporter: tonight the question many smartphone users are asking, will i pay more? that's because t-mobile and sprint are one step closer to a megamerger, the justice department clearing the way for a $26 billion deal that would combine the third and fourth largest wireless providers in the u.s. but 14 state attorneys general led by new york and california are suing to block it saying the combined company would force consumers to pay more on their cell phone bill thanks to less competition. >> it's bad for consumers, bad for innovation, and bad for workers. there's a possibility that your phone bill, the cost of your phone bill, particularly if you rely upon a prepaid mobile service will go up >> reporter: the companies say the deal is a win for consumers. t-mobile has promised not to raise prices for three years and sprint will spin off its prepaid phone service, boost mobile and virgin mobile to dish, a pay tv company >> critics are sa

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