An Amazon Echo may help solve a murder
A murder in Arkansas may change the way people behave around smart devices. Police in Bentonville, Arkansas have issued a warrant to Amazon to hand over any audio or records from the Echo device of one James Andrew Bates, a man set to go to trial next year for first-degree murder of Victor Collins, who was reportedly found dead in Bates’ hot tub last November.
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Due to the so-called always ‘on’ nature of the connected device, the authorities are after any audio the speaker may have picked up that night. “Amazon will not release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us. Amazon objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate demands as a matter of course,” said Pearsall in an email to Fortune.