But this week, the device grabbed headlines for another reason: Police in Arkansas are trying to use its data in a murder investigation.
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The warrants, issued by a court in Benson County, demand anything recorded by an Amazon Echo device belonging to a murder suspect during two days in November of a year ago, according to documents first uncovered by The Information. He has pleaded not guilty. “It is believed that these records are retained by Amazon.com and that they are evidence related to the case under investigation”.
However, when a little boy asked Alexa to “play Digger Digger”, the assistant comes back with possibly the worst possible reply. But experts say the storage capacity on the actual device is pretty minimal, so only a tiny amount is written and then overwritten as the device listens for the wake word. Sure, Amazon says the Echo records only after users utter the wake word, but, Reidenberg asks, will that always be the case?
“Even without Amazon’s help”, CNET reported, “police may be able to crack into the Echo” by tapping “into the hardware on the smart speakers, which could ‘potentially include time stamps, audio files or other data'”.
Police in Bentonville, Arkansas would love to know whether an Amazon Echo picked up the sounds of a crime.
Amazon’s Alexa AI is insanely cool, and while the folks over in Seattle have been doing a tremendous job at making their virtual assistant smarter and smarter since its initial release, it still isn’t quite flawless. “We’re not fearful of anything being provided, if Amazon does indeed respond”. Bates was charged with murder on November 22.
Amazon shares rose $11.75, or 1.5 percent, trading at $772.34 at 1:20 p.m. EST (1820 GMT).
McKenna says Amazon may prefer to be forced to give up any data because it shows customers the company takes user protection seriously. “Without addressing the specifics of the case, Amazon said in a statement that, as a matter of course, it ‘objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate demands'”.
In the midst of that public fight, Bezos said Amazon was among the many tech companies backing up Apple – and that they were embracing technology that would make it hard for government officials to access any personal information on its devices, even when those authorities have a warrant.
While handing over of email data by companies to law enforcement is commonplace, it does not happen without precedence and a proper legal order. You can delete recordings, and you can also turn off the Echo’s microphone, though that obviously compromises the usefulness of the device. Police are wondering if it was possible the device witnessed a murder inside a home.
Has YOUR Alexa gotten something really wrong??
And the law, guidelines and standards are far from settled.
“I think Amazon is likely going to lose that motion if it goes up the chain of appellate courts”, he said.
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That case, in which Apple chose not to comply, sparked a national conversation over the growing usage and dependency on smart devices and government access to information and the privacy rights of individual citizens.
