Amazon ordered to disclose Echo Alexa recordings in murder case

An Amazon Echo.
Elaine
Thompson/AP

• A US judge has instructed Amazon to hand over audio
  recordings from an Amazon Echo as evidence in a murder
  case.
• Prosecutors believe the Echo may have evidence relating
  to the murders of Christine Sullivan and Jenna Pelligrini in
  New Hampshire in January 2017.
• Amazon’s AI assistant Alexa is constantly
  listening out for “wake-up words” and records snippets
  of audio when it hears them.
• Amazon said it won’t release any customer information
  “without a valid and binding legal demand.”
• This is not the first time audio from an Echo has been
  requested in a murder case.

A judge in New Hampshire, US, has ordered Amazon to hand over any
audio recorded on an Amazon Echo device as prosecutors believe it
may contain evidence about a double homicide.

Christine Sullivan and Jenna Pelligrini were found dead with
multiple stab wounds in January 2017. Timothy Verrill, 36,

was charged in connection with the murders in November 2017.
He pleaded not guilty, and awaits trial in May 2019.

Prosecutors requested access to recordings from an Echo which was
at the house where the women were found, hidden under the porch.
Police initially seized the Echo as evidence after searching the
house.

“Investigators believe Sullivan was attacked in the kitchen of
979 Meaderboro Road where the Echo was located, and prosecutors
believe there is probable cause to believe there is evidence on
the Echo, such as audio recordings of the attack and events that
followed it,” prosecutors said in court documents,
as reported by CBS Boston.

Prosecutors believe there may be recordings from between January
27 and 29, 2017, the period in which they believe the women were
murdered.

Amazon’s AI assistant Alexa (which works on Echo devices) listens
out for “wake-up words” and records snippets of audio when it
thinks it hears one. Prosecutors also point out that the Echo
would contain records of paired devices.

Strafford County Superior Court Presiding Justice Steven M.
Houran
handed down the ruling to Amazon on Friday last week, ABC
reports.

Read more: Florida police failed to unlock
phone using a dead man’s finger — but corpses may still help in
hacking handsets

It said: “The court directs Amazon.com to produce forthwith to
the court any recordings made by an Echo smart speaker with Alexa
voice command capability, FCC ID number ZWJ-0823, from the period
of January 27, 2017 to January 29, 2017, as well as any
information identifying cellular devices that were paired to that
smart speaker during that time period.”

Amazon has yet to respond to Business Insider’s request for
comment. A spokesperson told NBC News that it won’t release any
customer information “without a valid and binding legal demand
properly served on us.”

This isn’t the first case in which prosecutors have sought
evidence recorded by an Amazon Echo. After the death of an
Arkansas police officer in a hot tub in 2015, prosecutors sought
to compel Amazon to hand over any recordings that might show
whether he was murdered.

Amazon initially
refused to hand over the data, saying that government demands
could
“chill” first amendment rights. But once the defendant and
owner of the Echo consented,
Amazon complied. The murder charge was
eventually dismissed.