American justice wants to retrieve data from a device "Alexa", the voice assistant of Amazon, who could have witnessed a murder. © AFP
It is an assumption that attempts to verify the American justice by recovering the data of the device registered at the time of the crime, in Arkansas, at the end of 2015. SOURCE AFP
After Apple , another Silicon Valley giant, Amazon, is called to the rescue by the US court. The voice activated assistant Amazon, "Alexa" may have witnessed a murder in the southern United States . The judges try to verify this hypothesis by trying to retrieve the data recorded by this device at the time of the crime. These data could clarify the murder of Victor Collins, 47, found drowned in the bathtub of James Bates' house in Bentonville, Arkansas, in November 2015, lawyers said on Wednesday. James Bates was charged with the murder of Victor Collins, whose body showed traces of blows.
During the investigation, an officer discovered in the house an Amazon "Echo" cylinder, which houses the voice-activated assistant "Alexa", able to answer questions or order other connected objects in the House. So, as soon as the word "Alexa" is pronounced, conversations are saved before being stored on Amazon servers. The prosecution has obtained a search warrant requesting Amazon to deliver all the data that may be relevant to the crime, according to a statement from Benton County Attorney Nathan Smith. The latter hopes that Amazon will accede to his request.
Protection of privacy
Until now, the US retail giant has only provided data from James Bates' account and has not given any data about his voice assistant, said Kimberly Weber, counsel for the accused. "We applaud Amazon's efforts to protect our client's life," she said. Asked by Agence France-Presse , Amazon declined to speak on the subject.
This case raises questions about privacy and technology at a time when more and more devices are recording users' data, as well as their movements and actions. Early this year, the American Apple had been at the center of a showdown with American justice , by refusing to help police bypass security measures to access the encrypted content from an iPhone Belonging to one of the authors of the attack of San Bernardino in California (14 dead on December 2, 2015). The request made to Amazon seems to be the first in connection with a crime.
| lepoint
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