US police request data from Amazon Echo speaker

The US police have issued a warrant against Amazon to hand over data from an Echo speaker with Alexa assistant. The police hope that the speaker has, for example, collected audio data that can help in a murder case.

The Amazon Echo speaker belonged to the suspect in the case, who was charged with murder earlier this year. Amazon refused to hand over the Echo’s logs that are on its servers, but did provide the police with the suspect’s account information.

The police were able to get data from the speaker, The Information reports, but it is not known what kind of data it concerns. According to the site, it is probably one of the first things where data from an always on speaker was requested. In practice, these kinds of speakers only listen after pronouncing a hotword, with Amazon’s Echo that is ‘Alexa’. Still, the police hope that audio with any new clues has been picked up.

The suspect had more smart home products, such as a smart water meter. This is also used in the case. The meter showed that more than 500 liters of water had been used on the night of the murder. The victim was found in the suspect’s hot tub and police believe that a lot of water was used to clear clues.