Police seek Amazon Echo recordings in murder case, raising concerns over use of IoT data

As part of the investigation of a murder case, police have issued a warrant to gain access to Amazon Echo voice recordings, according to a report in The Information. The investigation over a suspicious death in Bentonville, Arkansas, US started back in 2015 . James Andrew Bates was taken into custody over suspicion of the murder of Victor Parris Collins. Collins was found dead in Bates’ home in a hot tub. Bates told the police that they were drinking late into the night and later went to sleep while Collins continued to drink. A few hours later he found Collins dead in the tub. The police found bruises on the body of Collins, evidence of blood in the tub, and scratch marks on Bates, all of which they found suspicious and inconsistent with the account given by Bates. The police seized an Amazon Echo device belonging to Bates as part of the investigation. According to a report in TechCrunch, Bates had several IoT devices at home, including a Nest Thermostat and Honeywell home security devices . 5newsonline reports that the police contacted Bentonville Utilities Department to obtain water and electricity usage data. Engadget reports that the water use data was obtained from a smart sensor in Bates’ home itself. Using data obtained from both sources, the police noted an unusual spike in water use late in the night, around the time the murder is suspected to have happened. The extra water use is circumstantial evidence of a cover-up. The police issued a warrant to Amazon to provide voice recordings from that night. Amazon refused to comply with the request, but provided the law enforcement authorities with account details. This is perhaps the first time that police want to use Amazon Echo voice recordings in a murder investigation, and raises questions on privacy as well as legal use of IoT data against the owners of the products. https://twitter.com/dannysullivan/status/813873197435097089 If Amazon has provided the login details of the account, police can access the voice data from the Echo application. Police say they have managed to extract some data from the device itself. Echo keeps a log of commands and requests, referred to as “utterings.” These are stored in the cloud and can be deleted one by one or all together. Lights on top of the echo indicate when the device is recording audio, but it does passively listen for the trigger “Alexa,” all the time. It is possible to turn off the mike on the Echo, when required. https://twitter.com/reneritchie/status/813803562065072129 In a statement to Engadget, Amazon has said “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.” The Miranda Rights applicable in the United States allow suspects to be silent and avoid providing self-incriminating evidence. Previous recordings is a legal grey area. This is a struggle between privacy and and the process of enforcing the laws, similar to the Apple’s standoff with the FBI over the investigation of the San Bernardino mass shootings. Apple refused to create the technology needed to bypass the security on the device and the police found a way to do it on their own.