A judge has ordered Amazon to hand over recordings of a New Hampshire man, who is accused of double murder in the latest case showcasing privacy concerns over the company’s Alexa line of devices.
Timothy Verrill of Dover is charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of Jenna Pellegrini, 32, and Christine Sullivan, 48, in a Farmington house on Jan. 27, 2017.
Prosecutors believe the Echo device in the kitchen, which responds to Alexa voice commands, may have recorded audio of events leading up to and after Sullivan’s death.
New Hampshire police seized the speaker in 2017, and a Strafford County Superior Court judge agreed a week ago to let them access the recordings, reported Sea Coast Online. The judge also ordered Amazon to turn over any recordings from the device that it has stored on its servers, including information identifying any cellphones that connected with the speaker between Jan. 27 and 29, 2017.
State prosecutors said the voice-commanded Alexa listens for “wake-up words” from users and, when such a word is detected, it “begins audio recording through its integrated microphones, including recording the fraction of a second of audio before the wake-up words.”
Amazon maintains it will not hand over customer information without a legal warrant.
“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,” Amazon told the Boston Herald.
Court taking a brief recess in Timothy Verrill's bail hearing. pic.twitter.com/Z4u3AgtE2p
— Kimberley Haas (@KimberleyHaas) September 6, 2017
Privacy Concerns Linger
The case highlights concerns by consumers over what happens to data obtained through electronic devices.
“This is the tip of the iceberg of a huge problem. There is the third party rule that if you give information to a third party, the government can go after it. It has applied to phone calls. It’s trickier with cellphone tracking,” T. Barton Carter, a professor at Boston University specializing in communications and law, told the Herald.
“The real problem is the government law has not kept up with technology. So what is privacy at this point is a real problem.”
Many people do not realize how much data Alexa vacuums up, added another expert.
“I think most people probably don’t even realize that Alexa is taking account of what’s going on in your house, in addition to responding to your demands and commands,” Albert Scherr, a professor at the University of New Hampshire School of Law, told WMUR.
Previous Case Sets Precedent
Echo recordings have successfully been used in court to prove innocence. In a 2015 Arkansas murder trial, Amazon said it would not release audio recordings because they were protected under the First Amendment.
However, defendant James Bates later authorized the company to release the audio, resulting in the audio being used as evidence and, ultimately, the murder charges being dropped.
“My client James Bates is innocent,” Kathleen Zellner, Bates’ attorney, said on Twitter.
