Amazon Echo wading into new territory with AR murder
Since Alexa and other digital assistants listen for “wake up words,” police are hoping that someone involved in the situation either intentionally or accidentally activated the device, creating an audio record of that moment.Amazon reportedly declined to release voice recordings for Bates’ Echo device. The company did provide information on Bates’ account and purchases, and police were able to get some information off his speaker. We have reached out to Amazon for comment but have not heard back.
Source: Police seek Amazon Echo data in Arkansas hot tub murder – GeekWire
The popularity of digital assistants like Amazon’s Alexa was one of the emerging themes for 2016 — all part of our Connected Society investment theme. This case in Arkansas, where Police are issuing a warrant to recordings by an Amazon Alexa device raising an interesting angle — Safety & Security. The digital assistants work off of what has been termed “wake-up phrases” such as “Hey Alexa . . . ” or “Siri . . .”. The question this case might answer is, do such devices actually wake up and record when such phrases are mentioned or are they always recording? Recording 24 hours a day to everything that happens within “earshot”?
Raises some interesting cyber-security questions . . .
