Police ask for Echo data in murder case – Amazon only gives them purchase history

Prosecution calls Alexa to the stand

Amazon has been promoting its new Echo device on practically every platform available. If you haven’t seen the advertisement, count yourself fortunate.

The Echo, which answers to the name Alexa, is a hands-free speaker that responds to voice commands. You can get sports information, news, weather, and more just by asking Alexa. Echo can also read audiobooks, report traffic, and control lights and thermostats if your home is compatible with Alexa’s interface.

According to the Amazon website, Alexa is “always getting smarter and adding new features, plus thousands of skills like Uber, Domino’s, and more.” Sounds great? It is, until it can be used against you in a court of law.

The problem with listening devices

James Andrew Bates from Bentonville, Arkansas owns an Echo. He is also charged for the 2015 first-degree murder of Victor Collins. The trial is set for next year. The authorities served Amazon with a warrant for all audio and recordings from the Echo.

Although the Echo itself doesn’t have a hard drive, Amazon keeps records on its servers, but it’s not known for how long. Alexa’s voice commands are generally activated by saying its name. However, the device can be triggered and record what is going on in the room inadvertently.

The police have Bates’ Echo, but they want the information from Amazon’s servers.

So far, Amazon has declined to give police the information from the Echo, instead providing only account details and purchases made by Bates.

Bates’ attorney says there is an expectation of privacy within your home. Amazon’s spokesperson released this statement to Engadget: “Amazon will not release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us. Amazon objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate demands as a matter of course.”

Who is right?

Technology is a wonderful thing…until it’s used against us. Does Bates have a right to privacy through the gadgets in his home? Apple would probably assert yes, given that it fought so hard to prevent the Feds from forcing the company to break into the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone.

The Bates’ case is very similar to the San Bernardino case. Allowing the government access into devices that most people believe are private sets a dangerous precedent. Most people don’t think about having their privacy invaded through their home’s smart devices, but we should. It is a very slippery slope if the police gain access to the information that is stored on Amazon’s servers from the Echo.

As William Orville Douglas, Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, said in 1966, “We are rapidly entering the age of no privacy, where everyone is open to surveillance at all times; where there are no secrets from government.” This case should be watched by everyone.

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