Amazon Echo Info Causes Conflict In Murder Case

Arkansas police believe that an Amazon Echo – a digital device that works by voice control – may contain information that could help solve a 2015 case. Police have charged James Bates, with murder. Bates has pleaded not guilty. His home had numerous digital devices, and police say they want to check what, if anything, those devices may have recorded around the time of the murder. “Amazon will not release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us,” the company wrote in a statement. “Amazon objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate demands as a matter of course.” The case is reminiscent of last year’s battle between the FBI and Apple over a locked iPhone in the San Bernadino shooting investigation. “The standards of care – as companies have more and more really specific information about what goes on inside the home – has got to be higher and higher,” Nuala O’Connor, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology, told NPR.