Police seek Amazon Echo data in murder case - Company declined the case raises bigger questions about IoT privacy
Police seek Amazon Echo data in murder case
The company declined to do so, but the case raises bigger
questions about IoT privacy.
Billy Steele December 27, 2016
Amazon's Echo devices and its virtual assistant are meant
to help find answers by listening for your voice commands. However, police in
Arkansas want to know if one of the gadgets overheard something that can help
with a murder case. According to The Information, authorities in Bentonville
issued a warrant for Amazon to hand over any audio or records from an Echo
belonging to James Andrew Bates. Bates is set to go to trial for first-degree
murder for the death of Victor Collins next year.
Amazon declined to give police any of the information
that the Echo logged on its servers, but it did hand over Bates' account
details and purchases. Police say they were able to pull data off of the
speaker, but it's unclear what info they were able to access. Due to the so-called
always on nature of the connected device, the authorities are after any audio
the speaker may have picked up that night. Sure, the Echo is activated by
certain words, but it's not uncommon for the IoT gadget to be alerted to listen
by accident.
Police say Bates had several other smart home devices,
including a water meter. That piece of tech shows that 140 gallons of water
were used between 1AM and 3AM the night Collins was found dead in Bates' hot
tub. Investigators allege the water was used to wash away evidence of what
happened off of the patio. The examination of the water meter and the request
for stored Echo information raises a bigger question about privacy. At a time
when we have any number of devices tracking and automating our habits at home,
should that information be used against us in criminal cases?
Bates' attorney argues that it shouldn't. "You have
an expectation of privacy in your home, and I have a big problem that law
enforcement can use the technology that advances our quality of life against
us," defense attorney Kimberly Weber said. Of course, there's also the
question of how reliable information is from smart home devices. Accuracy can
be an issue for any number of IoT gadgets. However, an audio recording would
seemingly be a solid piece of evidence, if released.
Just as we saw with the quest to unlock an iPhone in the
San Bernardino case, it will be interesting to see how authorities and the
companies who make smart home devices work out the tension between serving
customers, maintaining privacy and pursuing justice.
We reached out to Amazon for comment and will update when
we hear back.
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