Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant may have information useful to a murder investigation in Arkansas, where authorities issued a groundbreaking warrant in a case that evokes Apple’s spat with the FBI earlier this year.
Police want access to data from the Amazon Echo$179.99 at Amazon speaker belonging to James Bates of Bentonville, Ark., who was charged earlier this year with first-degree murder, The Information reported Tuesday. Since the Echo speaker is always listening for Alexa voice commands, the audio it recorded could provide clues about what happened inside Bates’ home on Nov. 22, 2015, when a man was found dead in his hot tub.
Amazon is secretive about how it handles the audio recorded from Alexa-enabled devices. According to its privacy statement, the company collects “information about use of Alexa and its interaction with your Alexa Enabled Product (such as device type, voice information, content metadata, and location).” Amazon reserves the right to store that information on its servers, and promises to handle it in accordance with its main privacy policy.
“Amazon will not release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us,” a spokesperson siad. “Amazon objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate demands as a matter of course.”
