Last November, Victor Collins was found dead in a hot tub at James Andrew Bates’s Bentonville home after having a few drinks. Bates, the leading suspect is accused with murder charges by the Arkansas police with an ongoing homicide investigation. The police found an Amazon Echo device during the investigation and hope that the same could provide some useful voice evidences relative to the case.
Bentonville Police department issued a warrant to Amazon in order to obtain audio records for the Echo device in question. Though Amazon has refused to provide the information, it has submitted Bates’s purchase history and account information. Further, Bates will be going for first degree murder in the coming year.
Amazon Echo comes equipped with a built-in virtual assistant — Alexa. The assistant responds to voice commands spoken to it by respective owners with the wake word. The device records user voice requests for recognition though that can be erased later. The recording is then sent to Amazon’s cloud servers to understand the voice command. These recordings can be accessed via the Alexa companion smartphone app as Amazon stores them for future references. The police is engaged to gain a lead on the case with Amazon’s stored recordings which could be helpful in solving the mystery.
Nathan Smith, prosecuting attorney did let out a word on the case, saying,
Amazon has refused to comply with the warrant. We haven’t recovered anything from the device as a result,If Amazon has concerns about trade secrets or intellectual property rights, there are ways to excise such information from what is provided.I don’t believe there is any rational or legal basis for concluding that one has to comply with a search warrant for one’s home or even the drawing of one’s blood, but not a computer.
Kinley Pearsall, Spokesperson for Bates commented in response, stating,
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.
Earlier this year, FBI had engaged with Apple for evidences in San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook’s case. With tech improving day by day, it is also assisting in resolving cases and investigation but at the cost of our privacy — which tech behemoths are trying to contain. Though there has been no news on recordings being out, we’ll keep you updated if Amazon releases any.