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Amazon will hand over Echo audio data in murder case

by on07 March 2017


Warrant request was made for audio recordings on company's servers

Thanks to a proper demonstration of First Amendment rights by consent of a defendant to release information obtained under a warrant, Amazon has now repositioned its stance on a November 2015 murder case and has agreed to release audio recordings originating from an Echo device during the incident.

Over the past several months, Amazon has spent significant effort pushing back against a warrant request for information coming from an Amazon Echo speaker for a murder trial in Arkansas. The company recently offered a strong defense against releasing any audio data from the defendant’s device, but last Friday agreed after defendant James Andrew Bates consented to disclosure.

Bates has been charged with first degree murder in the 2015 death of Victor Collins, who was found dead in a hot tub at Bates’ home. During the investigation, authorities discovered an Amazon Echo speaker in the house and sent Amazon a warrant requesting audio recordings from the device, which are stored on its servers.

Alexa’s responses to users also protected under First Amendment

The company originally said that it had only “partially fulfilled” the warrant’s request, saying that the First Amendment protects user queries to the Alexa service, and even that Alexa’s responses back to the user are also protected.

kathleen zellner james bates tweet

According to a tweet posted on Monday morning, private attorney Kathleen Zellner said that her defendant James Bates is innocent.

After spending months pushing back against the release of information, Amazon confirmed its disclosure reversal in a court filing made available on Monday. According to the release, the company is legally allowed to share user data from its Echo devices so long as a user consents.

Last modified on 07 March 2017
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