If you have one of these, this might interest you. Two women were murdered in their home. The police wanted Amazon to allow them to hear any ALEXA recordings the women made the nite of the murder. Amazon has been fighting against the release of recordings. Last week a judge ordered them to give them to LEO's. How do you feel about Alex recording in your home?
Last week, a judge in New Hampshire ordered Amazon to hand over recordings of an Echo smart speaker found in the home where a double murder took place last year in Farmington.
Authorities believe the recordings may provide information that could put the murderer behind bars. If Amazon does hand over the private data of its users to law enforcement, it won’t just involve the tech company in a murder case. It will also be the latest incident to raise serious questions about how much data tech companies collect about their customers with and without their knowledge, how that data can be used, and what it means for privacy.
An Amazon Echo might be a key witness in a murder trial
Last January, Timothy Verrill was charged with first-degree murder by the New Hampshire attorney general in the deaths of two women, Christine Sullivan and Jenna Pellegrini. Police found the women’s bodies in the backyard of Sullivan’s boyfriend, Dean Smoronk, whom local New Hampshire media reported Verrill knew.
Verrill was spotted on home surveillance video with both Sullivan and Pellegrini. He was also seen on video hours later buying cleaning supplies at a store and returning to the house. After Smoronk called 911 to report his girlfriend missing, police found the bodies and seized an Amazon Echo speaker in the kitchen, next to the spot where police believe Sullivan was killed. Last Friday, a judge ordered Amazon to hand over the recordings on the Echo, as well as any information of cellphones that were paired to the speaker on the date of the murder.
According to the Associated Press, prosecutors believe the Echo might have useful information to make the case against Verrill, whose trial begins May 2019, including details about what happened during and after the murder, such as “possible removal of the body from the kitchen.”
In a statement to Vox, Amazon said it won’t “release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us” and that “Amazon objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate demands as a matter of course.” It didn’t comment on whether the company will hand over the data once it’s served a motion, or if it will challenge the ruling.
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