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Police Request Amazon Echo Recordings For Homicide Investigation (cnet.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the always-listening dept.

Tulsa_Time quotes a report from CNET: Amazon's Echo and Echo Dot are in millions of homes now, with holiday sales more than quadrupling from 2015. Always listening for its wake word, the breakthrough smart speakers boast seven microphones waiting to take and record your commands. Now, Arkansas police are hoping an Echo found at a murder scene in Bentonville can aid their investigation. [First reported by The Information, investigators filed search warrants to Amazon, requesting any recordings between November 21 and November 22, 2015, from James A. Bates, who was charged with murder after a man was strangled in a hot tub. While investigating, police noticed the Echo in the kitchen and pointed out that the music playing in the home could have been voice activated through the device. While the Echo records only after hearing the wake word, police are hoping that ambient noise or background chatter could have accidentally triggered the device, leading to some more clues. Amazon has not sent any recordings to the officers but did provide Bates' account information to authorities, according to court documents. The retailer giant said it doesn't release customer information without a "valid and binding legal demand." "Amazon objects to over-broad or otherwise inappropriate demands as a matter of course," the company said in a statement. Even without Amazon's help, police may be able to crack into the Echo, according to the warrant. Officers believe they can tap into the hardware on the smart speakers, which could "potentially include time stamps, audio files or other data."] Police also found a Nest thermostat, a Honeywell alarm system, wireless weather monitoring in the backyard and WeMo devices for lighting at the smart home crime scene. Officers have also seized an iPhone 6S, a Macbook Pro, a PlayStation 4 and three tablets in the investigation.

15 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Bugs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    People intentionally bugging their own homes and paying a corporation for the privilege to do so.

    1. Re:Bugs by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Informative

      There are multiple self hosted solutions. Any old Mac has this for at least a decade. (Our old Snow Leopard Mini has it).

      Jasper and Lucida.

    2. Re:Bugs by chispito · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Audio is only uploaded once the wake word is used. As it exclusively uses your home wifi, it is easy to test for and monitor this, unlike the phone you likely carry in your pocket.

      Because when you say this

      People intentionally bugging their own homes and paying a corporation for the privilege to do so.

      I read this

      I am irrationally scared of an Echo but not by the phone in my pocket.

      --
      The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
    3. Re:Bugs by PraiseBob · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Do police regularly request cellular phone companies to provide recordings of ambient audio recorded by cellphones? In this example, the police DO treat an Echo differently from a cell phone, and the DO expect it to have stored audio that might aid their investigation, because unlike a cell phone, the echo records everything when active.

      Law enforcement treats the objects differently, so seems perfectly rational for consumers to notice the difference.

    4. Re:Bugs by hawguy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Do police regularly request cellular phone companies to provide recordings of ambient audio recorded by cellphones? In this example, the police DO treat an Echo differently from a cell phone, and the DO expect it to have stored audio that might aid their investigation, because unlike a cell phone, the echo records everything when active.

      Law enforcement treats the objects differently, so seems perfectly rational for consumers to notice the difference.

      How would you know what the police do with cell phones? Law enforcement even hides whether or not they use a stingray at all, and there is very little information about what the devices are and what they are capable of - maybe they really can remotely turn on your phone's microphone and record what you're saying? And all of these secrecy comes not just with the Justice Department's blessing, but at the outright request of the Justice department.

      ...The documents also discuss the possibility of flashing a phone’s firmware “so that you can intercept conversations using a suspect’s cell phone as a bug...

      https://www.wired.com/2015/10/...

    5. Re:Bugs by p0p0 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Why do you assume that because they are requesting the info means that Amazon has it? The police can subpoena me for the identity of JFK's real killer and I won't be able to tell them no matter how firmly they ask.

      The Association wouldn't allow me to say anyway. That's what the brain-chip was for.

    6. Re: Bugs by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Interesting

      And after the neural network has analysed it and extracted the command, the raw audio data may well be ditched other than the command it recognised with a success/error response code.

      I don't think anything is kept locally, but I don't think all the data is ditched on the server. If I say "Alexa, play some music" it will play something I like, such as Willie Nelson or Waylon Jennings. But if my daughter says the same thing, it will play something she likes, such as Bruno Mars. So it is obviously saving enough info to recognize the voice and preferences of individual family members.

    7. Re: Bugs by MrPeach · · Score: 3, Informative

      I worked for Nuance, and they kept *all* post keyword phrases on their server. At least on the project I was working on. Whether they do this with their smart phone apps I really don't know. And whether Amazon does the same I really can't say, unless Amazon it's actually using Nuance...

    8. Re: Bugs by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Insightful

      1. They have sold millions, so I figure somebody has checked.
      2. If they were actually recording everything, a lot of people would have to be in on the secret.
      3. I assume that Amazon is run by greedy bastards, and they wouldn't build a lot of expensive extra capacity into a device if there was no profit in it for them.
      4. If they were spying, and got caught, it would have terrible effects on their reputation, and cost them a lot of customers.

  2. Re:Never saw this coming by Crashmarik · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh just don't indulge in thoughtcrime and everything will be doubleplusgood.

  3. Re:Never saw this coming by Elfich47 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I expect there to be a follow up story in the next couple of weeks: Cops vexxed by fact that amazon isn't recording everything and try to force amazon to release "secret recordings" they feel that amazon should have.

    --
    Architectural plans are like computer source code with a couple of differences: You only compile once.
  4. Re:Never saw this coming by zlives · · Score: 4, Insightful

    did i miss the amazon denial of recordings?

  5. Re:Never saw this coming by Will_Malverson · · Score: 3, Funny

    LPT: If you're being murdered, tell Alexa.

    Alexa: My brother in law Jerry is here and has a knife and is stabbing me! Ow!

  6. Could be enough to prove he's lying by raymorris · · Score: 3

    The suspect said he went to bed at 1:00 AM with the4 victim alive, then woke up at 8:30 to find him dead. The water meter indicates the drowning occurred between 1:00 AM and 3:00 AM.

    ANY recording of the suspect's voice between 1:00 AM and 8:30 would probably indicate that the suspect is lying. Even if he checked the weather forecast at 4:00 that would indicate he wasn't asleep as claimed.

      On the other hand, if records or witness testimony indicates that the habitually suspect uses the Echo several times per hour and he did NOT use it between 1:00 and 8:30, that would be consistent with his claim that he was asleep, somewhat corroborating his story.

  7. Echo isn't the smart device that cracked the case by Solandri · · Score: 3, Informative
    From TFAs:

    Bates told police he went to bed at 1 a.m. after he, Collins and another man drank alcohol in his hot tub. Bates said he called police at 9:30 a.m. when he found Collins' body.

    Bates' lawyer said a pair of cancelled calls around 1 a.m. and a series of short or cancelled calls around 4 a.m. on Bates' phone were mistakes.

    As for Mr. Bates, court records suggest the device prosecutors got more from wasn't the Alexa but the home's smart water meter. It showed that someone used 140 gallons of water between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. at Mr. Bates' house, a much heavier than usual amount.

    So basically the guy's alibi might have held up if (1) he hadn't used his phone after he claimed he went to sleep, and (2) the water meter didn't show significant activity in the house after he claimed he went to sleep (police think he was busy washing away any evidence).