Created4
12-28-2016, 11:46 AM
Can Alexa help solve a murder? Police think so — but Amazon won’t give up her data.
from Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/12/28/can-alexa-help-solve-a-murder-police-think-so-but-amazon-wont-give-up-her-data/?utm_term=.2153ad987b25).
When police responded to a home in Bentonville, Ark., one Sunday morning last November, they discovered Victor Collins's dead body in the backyard. Police records describe a grim scene: Collins's body was floating face up in a hot tub, and his left eye and lips dark and swollen.
The resident who had called 911, James A. Bates, told police that he and a few work buddies, including Collins, had stayed up the night before watching football and drinking. Bates agreed to let two of them crash at his house, he told police, then went to bed. Shortly after he awoke, he claimed he spotted Collins's lifeless body in the spa.
Upon further investigation, however, police began suspecting foul play: Broken knobs and bottles, as well as blood spots around the tub, suggested there had been a struggle. A few days later, the Arkansas chief medical examiner ruled Collins's death a homicide — and police obtained a search warrant for Bates's home.
Inside, detectives discovered a bevy of “smart home” devices, including a Nest thermometer, a Honeywell alarm system, a wireless weather monitoring system and an Amazon Echo. Police seized the Echo and served a warrant to Amazon, noting in the affidavit there was “reason to believe that Amazon.com is in possession of records related to a homicide investigation being conducted by the Bentonville Police Department.”
That allegation — that the Echo is possibly recording at all times without the “wake word” being issued — is incorrect, according to an Amazon spokesperson. The device is constantly listening but not recording, and nothing is streamed to or stored in the cloud without the wake word being detected.
Amazon, for its part, has refused to comply with the warrants, according to court records. A company spokeswoman said she could not comment on this specific case.
“Amazon will not release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us,” a company spokeswoman said in an email to The Post. “Amazon objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate demands as a matter of course.”
from Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/12/28/can-alexa-help-solve-a-murder-police-think-so-but-amazon-wont-give-up-her-data/?utm_term=.2153ad987b25).
When police responded to a home in Bentonville, Ark., one Sunday morning last November, they discovered Victor Collins's dead body in the backyard. Police records describe a grim scene: Collins's body was floating face up in a hot tub, and his left eye and lips dark and swollen.
The resident who had called 911, James A. Bates, told police that he and a few work buddies, including Collins, had stayed up the night before watching football and drinking. Bates agreed to let two of them crash at his house, he told police, then went to bed. Shortly after he awoke, he claimed he spotted Collins's lifeless body in the spa.
Upon further investigation, however, police began suspecting foul play: Broken knobs and bottles, as well as blood spots around the tub, suggested there had been a struggle. A few days later, the Arkansas chief medical examiner ruled Collins's death a homicide — and police obtained a search warrant for Bates's home.
Inside, detectives discovered a bevy of “smart home” devices, including a Nest thermometer, a Honeywell alarm system, a wireless weather monitoring system and an Amazon Echo. Police seized the Echo and served a warrant to Amazon, noting in the affidavit there was “reason to believe that Amazon.com is in possession of records related to a homicide investigation being conducted by the Bentonville Police Department.”
That allegation — that the Echo is possibly recording at all times without the “wake word” being issued — is incorrect, according to an Amazon spokesperson. The device is constantly listening but not recording, and nothing is streamed to or stored in the cloud without the wake word being detected.
Amazon, for its part, has refused to comply with the warrants, according to court records. A company spokeswoman said she could not comment on this specific case.
“Amazon will not release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us,” a company spokeswoman said in an email to The Post. “Amazon objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate demands as a matter of course.”