We all know that the role of virtual assistants is well defined. Recently, a murder case could be settled if the police could get Amazon to provide information from an Amazon Echo.

Amazon Echo Might Solve A Murder Case For The First Time

The role of virtual assistants is well defined. They want to help users with specific tasks, but sometimes they might overhear.

A homicide case could be settled if the police could get Amazon to provide information from an Amazon Echo who was at the alleged manslaughter’s home.

This case goes back to last year when Victor Collins was found dead with signs of violence in the town of Bentonville, Arkansas. The victim was found dead at the home of James Andrew Bates, who had installed several Internet-connected devices. Among them was one of Amazon’s recent virtual assistants, Amazon Echo, who centrally records all the requests and conversations they have with each other.

The police will request to Amazon to provide all the information on this equipment, including the same audio records so they can investigate what is past. Giant Amazon will have rejected this request, claiming that doing so would compromise the privacy of its customers. Only with a valid court order, Amazon may consider providing information about this equipment and the recorded data.

Even if the court order is delivered and accepted by Amazon, this case may never proceed through this means. While always listening, Amazon Echo only logs information when users say the right phrase for registration, as many other wizards do. If it has not been used, there will be no records of the crime.

This case is pursuing one of the most media of the year 2016 and involved Apple and the FBI. For months, the US security agency had wanted Apple to unlock the iPhone from the San Bernardino shooter and put a key in its software to get it done without recourse to the company.

The case was solved without the help of Apple but ended up having a strong impact on public opinion, which shown the possibility of its privacy being exposed without any control and the intervention of the courts.

This is yet another example of how police forces try to obtain data directly and without following legal procedures, forcing companies to provide their users’ data. Amazon’s position is firm and in line with what most technology companies have decided to do.

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